


Protect and Serve

by AnxiouslyNerdy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gangs, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Langst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-07-08 15:23:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 44,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15933182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnxiouslyNerdy/pseuds/AnxiouslyNerdy
Summary: Voltron is an Elite sector of the FBI. They solve the unsolvable crimes. Their current case involves non-other than the Galra gang. The Galra are known for their massive power over the criminal world. Voltron has been on their tail for a year, and a new discovery leads them to what looks to be a warehouse outside of Altea. They’re hoping to capture a few Galra members to interrogate in order to bring down the leaders of The Galra. They are not prepared for what lies within the building.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am REALLY bad a tagging! Please just know that this story is pretty dark! The rape/non-con elements will not be graphic but are heavily implied and will probably be talked about. 
> 
> If any of you have suggestions for tags I would appreciate the help. I just never know what to put.

The team is gathered in the woods surrounding an abandoned warehouse. They’re covered by the darkness, trying to keep the element of surprise in their hands. For being abandoned years ago, the warehouse looks to be in good shape. There are multiple vehicles outside, and they can see some lights on inside.  Allura, the Commander and Chief of Voltron runs everyone through the plan once more.

“Coran and I will cut the power to the warehouse. Pidge, Hunk, You two are in charge of finding any and all data and information. If this is their headquarters then they are bound to have records either electronic or paper somewhere. Shiro, Keith, you two are to find any and all evidence of crimes, whether it be drugs, money, or weapons. Remember to try and keep any Galra we see alive. We need to get any information out of them that we can. The new weapons Matt and the other technicians made us will shoot pellets that attach to and electrocute whoever they hit. If you get fired at and it’s a matter of life and death, then and only then, defend yourselves and take them out first. Everyone got it?”

“Got it!” Everyone answers at once.

Coran and Allura move out first. They stay low and locate the fuse boxes quickly. Soon the lights go out and the others can hear people shouting inside. Shiro and Keith hurry to the front door, tazing any Galra that exit. When they get through the gang starts to panic. They grab anything around them, and pull their weapons. But Keith and Shiro are too fast and continue to take down member after member. All around them glass is breaking as Galra escape into the dark, a few of them getting hit by Pidge and Hunk who stormed in after Shiro and Keith cleared the way. Once the main room is clear, Pidge sits at the first computer she sees and starts her search for anything useful. Hunk stands behind her with his back to her almost completely hiding the small FBI agent from view, and keeps his gun at the ready.

Soon Allura and Coran join the rest of the Team, and they along with Keith and Shiro start clearing rooms, making sure no one is hiding to ambush them. Allura and Coran make their way upstairs, and Keith spots a door toward the back of the main room. Shiro follows him as Keith slowly opens the door to find a set of stairs going down. It’s pitch black, with no way for the moonlight to even get in. They turn on their flashlights and head down the stairs as stealthy as they can.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Keith says, glancing over his shoulder at Shiro, “It doesn’t feel right.”

Shiro nods in agreement, “Just keeps your eyes open.”

When they reach the bottom of the stairs they’re met with another door. This one has multiple locks on the outside of it. “What could they be hiding in there?” The smaller of the two whispers.

Shiro reaches forward and starts to unlock each of the deadbolts and chain locks. There’s shuffling behind the door and both of the agents ready their guns. When the door swings open it almost seems like the room is empty, until they here a soft sob in the left corner, and someone cooing. They turn quickly, and their flashlights land on a group of people huddled together in the corner. It looks like small children are against the walls, holding onto each other. Then kids a few years older are standing in front of them, as to block them from any danger, a few steps in front of them in a young boy…no man. He has his hands in the air, shaking like a leaf.

“Shit…” Keith breathes.

All of the kids and the man are dressed the same in a dirty and torn, what was once white, tank top and nothing but their briefs, boxers, or underwear on.

Shiro lifts his wrist to talk into his communicator. “Allura…we…we found something you need to see.”

Keith seems frozen in his spot, his light on the young man protecting the children. Shiro slowly moves his light around the room and dread fills his stomach. There’s a ratty mattress in the corner, with ropes laid near it. There’s chains on the walls with cuffs, and what looks like dried blood all over the place. When he turns his attention back to the group he notices a glint by their feet, he points his flashlight down and see the cuffs around their ankles, with chains keeping their legs close enough that they would have to shuffle to walk, so there’s no way they can run.

Finally Shiro speaks to the man holding his hands up, “You can relax, we aren’t here to hurt you. We’re apart or the FBI, you’re all safe now.”

There’s hurried steps down the stairs and Allura and Coran enter the room, their guns falling to their sides slowly, “Oh…” Allura gasps. Then she lifts her wrist, “Pidge…I need you to find anything you can on sex trafficking in their systems, or captives, or anything to do with them taking children.”

Coran steps forward, removing some tools from a pocket in his bulletproof vest. He steps toward the tan-skinned man and holds his hands in front of him like he’s approaching a wounded animal. The tall man takes a step the best he can in the chains, and Coran speaks softly. “I’m not going to hurt you, I’m just going to remove the chains. Still shaking the far too skinny young man shuffles forward and watches with wide fearful eyes as  Coran gets to work. Once he’s freed everyone him and Allura lead them up the stairs with Keith and Shiro bringing up the rear. Keith looks into the room one more time and shudders at the thought of what might have happened.

Hunk’s eyes fill with horror as the kids walk into the main room. There’s four children, three boys and one girl who look to be around the ages of eight-ten. Then there’s the six teens, three boys, three girls. The last person to enter the room looked to be someone their age. He gapes the longest at him, and asks to no one in particular, “Isn’t sex trafficking done with kids and teens? Why…why is there an adult? How…how long as he been with them?”

“Hunk, we don’t know if that’s what’s going on here, there are multiple possibilities, lets just hope for the least evil of those possibilities.” Allura tries to reassure everyone.

The young man scoffs, startling everyone, but he ignores them to tend to the children. He kneels at their feet picking one foot up at a time and rubbing gently at where the red marks from the cuffs are around their ankles. He even gives the same treatment to the teens. When he’s done he stands near them, his eyes always jumping between the six agents in the room. Once he decides they’re not going to hurt him, he crosses his arms and curls in slightly on himself. Shiro’s heart breaks at the sight of all of this and he gently asks, “What’s your name?”

The man looks at him but doesn’t answer.

Pidge interrupts their staring contest, “I got everything I could off of here. We should get the victims back to the agency. Get them checked out by medical and figure out if there’s any missing persons reports for them.

Shiro moves to put a hand on the mans shoulder to lead him out of the warehouse, but he flinches away so hard he almost trips over himself. Shiro raises his hands, “Sorry! I uh, just follow Pidge and Hunk out. We have a short walk to our vehicles.

Sighing, Lance picks up the little girl, and the three teen boys pick up the three little boys. None of the agents noticed how worn out they all looked. The walk goes quickly, and soon the kids are being piled into the cars. The three teen girls sit in the back of Allura and Corans SUV, with the little girl on one of their laps. Lance gestures to the boys to get into Hunk and Pidge’s SUV. Then he lifts the little boy in and he lays across the other boys laps, almost falling asleep instantly.

Glaring at Shiro, Lance walks over to the last SUV. He only hesitates a little before climbing in. Shiro and Keith get in the front, and it’s the longest, most silent trip back to the agency they’ve ever had. They try to get Lance to talk but he just stares aimlessly out the window, his head leaning against the cool glass. Keith looks over his seat at him. When he had a bad feeling, he didn’t want it to be something like this. Yet, more times than not, it’s something just as bad. It’s apart of the job, and he knows tonight he and Shiro won’t sleep. Probably not for a couple of days.

They pull into the underground garage of the Agency, and lead the victims to the elevator. When they enter, they all huddle in a corner like before, only this time in the light, they’re covering their eyes, like they hadn’t seen proper light in a long time. Also in the light the Voltron team can see how bruised, scared, dirty, and skinny they all are. The young man being the far worst of them all. Keith can’t help but stair, all kinds of horrible thoughts are running through his head, but one thing if certain, this man took the brunt of everything to protect the kids, and that brings some hope back into Keith’s heart. Hope that maybe these kids won’t be too far gone. That the right help and therapy will get them back on track. As for the man though…Keith doesn’t know if they will actually be able to help him.

Their first stop is medical. Shiro sighs, this is going to be difficult. He gathers the victims all together and explains. “Our doctors and nurses are going to check all of you out, and collect any evidence off of you that they can. With that being said, a…well a rape kit will need to be done, but only at your consent. We can’t force you to do it, but it would help us if we can make sure you’re all okay, and gather any DNA if possible.”

The tan-skinned man, looks straight at Shiro, and wow are his eyes blue. “No.”

This time Allura speaks, “Please, it won’t hurt, and it will be over before you know it.”

Lance looks like he’s about to yank all of the kids out of there when one of the teen boys puts a hand on his shoulder. “Just…lets do it. Maybe they can get something, anything, to put those scumbags away.”

Lance runs a hand down his face and nods. He speaks softly to each of the children, explaining that the doctors and nurses will have to look at all the pieces of their bodies. They look like they might cry but the man shushes them, “Be brave, okay? They won’t hurt you.”

Nurses lead each of the kids over to beds and shut the curtains around them. The sound of cameras taking photos fill the room. Then a tall, strong built woman walks up to the man. She has the kindest voice when she speaks, “My name is Shay. I know this is probably the last thing you want to be doing, but shall we go get it over with?”

The man nods follows her. He startles a little when the curtain closes and he realizes the agent with the long black hair and weirdly purple eyes is in there with him. He glares and Keith explains, “An agent needs to be present for each exam, to make sure evidence doesn’t get tampered with or accidently destroyed.”

Lance huffs, he remembers the others being followed by the agents, and some by ones he hadn’t seen at the warehouse.  It’s bad enough that the nurse and whenever the doctor shows up, will be touching and staring and taking pictures, but now he has a stupid cop watching too.

Shay pulls grabs a clipboard and asks, “Can I get your name? For the report?”

He rubs his arm and mumbles, “Lance McClain.”

“Okay Lance, How old are you?”

“Um…I don’t know.”

Keith frowns, how can he not know how old he is.

“It’s 2018, can you tell me when you were born? We can figure it out together.” Shay says calmly.

Lance thinks for a moment, eyes filling with unshed tears, “I-I’m twenty-two.”

“Lance, can you tell me the age you were when the Galra got a hold of you?”

“Eight.”

Keith’s mouth falls open, “They had you for _fourteen_ years!”

Lance flinches at the volume of Keith’s voice. When he regains control of himself he snarls, “I guess they just liked me… _lucky me_.”

Keith opens and closes his mouth and few times, trying to figure out what to say and settles with, “I’m sorry. I was just…surprised.”

The tan-skinned man rolls his eyes and Shay raises an eyebrow at Keith, who just shrugs. She lets out a breath and asks, “What is your ethnicity?”

“I’m uh, Cuban.” Lance answers timidly.

Shay jots it down, and then looks at him apologetically. “Okay Lance, I’m going to need you to undress so I can take photos of your wounds. If you’d like you can start with just your shirt and we’ll move on from there. Lance obediently lifts off his shirt, and Keith curses under his breath. His ribs are sticking out so far he can probably count each one. He knew the man was skinny, but he’s literally just a skeleton with some skin over it. His body is covered in more bruises than Keith thought was possible for one body to hold, and when Shay has him turn around, Keith’s heart drops. His back is full of old scars, and knew cuts, maybe a day or two old. Shay makes sure to get close up photos of the wounds. When Lance turns back around Keith notices an odd scar just on the inside of Lance’s hip bone on the front of his body, barely peaking over his briefs.

“Shay, don’t miss that scar there.” Keith says pointing towards it.”

Lance pulls off his briefs and Keith makes sure to keep his eyes chest up. He doesn’t want to make Lance even more uncomfortable. “Okay Lance, I need Keith to see this.” She hands a blanket over to Lance to cover himself with but he leaves the off scar showing. “Keith it’s okay to look now.”

Keith lets his eyes lower and furrows his brow. The scar is a weird shape, with sharp edges, but with a circle around it, and that’s when it hits him, “They branded you.”

Lance covers the scar up. “Not just me.”

Shay puts down her camera and picks up an evidence bag. She puts Lances discarded clothes in them and seals it. “Okay, Lance. I’m going to have you lie down.” He does as he’s told, keeping himself covered, and she gets out a kit from the cabinet next to the bed. “So now I’m going to take some more uncomfortable photos, and do some swabbing. Being a male this may be uncomfortable because I need to see if there has been any tearing. Because I assume by the fact that you agreed to this rape kit, that you have been abused, and we need to know the extent of it.”

Lance takes a shaky breath but nods. Keith crosses his arms, his stomach turning, threatening to spill it’s contents onto the floor. Shay has Lance bend his legs and drapes the blanket over them to give him some sense of privacy. She folds the blanket up to his knees, and Keith moves so he’s waist Level with Lance, giving the man the respect he deserves. The camera goes off a few times, and then shay grabs her kit. Keith has no idea what any of it does, but she pulls out a tool that he’s sure will be used to open Lance up to look further inside him. She lets Lance know before she touches him, and he winces as she works. She takes more photos, gets her swabs, and takes notes of any scaring. Keith looks up at Lances face, and notices for the first time there’s tear tracks down his dirty cheeks.

Not thinking about it he steps closer and grabs ahold of Lance’s hand. “You’re doing great. It’s almost over.”

Lance starts to pull his hand away but then grips onto Keith like his life depends on it. He’s always the on comforting the kids, always the one who needs to be strong, and just this one time, he’s going to let this stranger comfort him. He thinks he’s earned at least that much from his shitty life.

The last thing on Shay’s list is to get some blood to check for any STD’s or other illnesses. When she’s done the doctor comes in, bandages Lance’s wounds, and not so surprisingly tell Keith he is severely malnourished.  

When all is said and done, Lance joins back up with the rest of the victims, once again comforting and consoling them. They are all in sweat pants and a t-shirt that the agency provides all it’s victims, since they take their clothes for evidence. All the agents look a little green, eyes filled with horror, but they don’t have time to dwell. The next step is to find the victims families. They go up more levels and Pidge starts looking through missing person files.

Before noon the next day she has located all of the victims families except one…Lance’s. Lance mentioned that his family lives in Cuba. His dad is American, so they travel here often to visit his grandparents, who have now been dead for a few years. She slams her laptop closed, “The system fucked this one up! There had to have been reports but because of his duel-citizenship they let it fall through the cracks! All I’ve found is the mentions of a missing Cuban boy, but no contact information, nothing!”

Just then hunk returns with bags lining his arms with take out food. “I uh, thought while they wait for their families they may want something to eat.”

Everyone mentally slaps themselves not thinking of that even once. They go to the counseling room where the kids and Lance have been. From the two-way glass Shiro can see the kids playing and Lance watching with a soft smile on his lips. When they enter the kids all stop what they’re doing and start to panic.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. You can keep playing. We just brought some food!” Hunk says holding up the bags.

They lay out the food on one of the tables, burgers, fries, shakes, and cookies for desert. The kids start digging in, but the teens look to Lance. His smile is long gone, but he nods. He gets up and starts heading for the door.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Keith asks, worried that Lance can’t lose much more weight without withering away.

“Uh, yeah. I will um after.”

“After what?” Hunk asks.

“I’ll just…can we go somewhere else…not around the kids.” Lance shyly asks.

“Sure. Who uh, do you want to talk to or whatever?” Hunk looks around at everyone confusion clear on his face.

“Whoever you see fit.” Lance replies, eyes downcast.

Keith and Shiro share a look, and Shiro says, “Hunk we’ll come with you.”

Lance follows the three men to an interrogation room. As soon as the door shuts, Lance pulls his shirt off and starts to pull down his pants when Shiro stops him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?”

Lance pauses for a moment and realizes what they want instead. He rubs his jaw for a second before closing the distance between himself and Shiro. He quickly drops to his knees and grabs onto Shiro’s belt. As he starts to undo it, Shiro grabs his wrist and drops to the floor in front of him. “Lance…stop.”

Lance shakes his head, “You can’t have one of the kids. I’ll do it. It’s fine.”

“What are you talking about?” Keith demands.

“Payment…for the food.”

“Oh my God…OH MY GOD!” Hunk starts freaking out! “They! They made you…OH MY GOD!”

“Hunk calm down!” Shiro snaps. Then he turns his attention to Lance, “We don’t need _anything_ from you for anything we do for you! You guys need to eat, so Hunk got you food. He didn’t do it for…uh favors. Now please, go join the others and eat.”

Lance, confused and a little wary, he gets up, puts his shirt back on and leaves the room.

“We need to talk to them sooner than later! We need to get the Galra. Considering none of the gang members are talking, maybe the kids know something. Lance has to know something!” Keith goes off. Then he turns, picks up the chair, and chucks it across the room.

Before Shiro can get after Keith the door opens and Allura says, “The first set of parents are here.”

They all get to the counseling room to watch as one of the teenage girls shoot up and rushes over to her mother. This part of the job always makes Shiro smile. Reuniting families never gets old. He just wishes he could stop the evils in this world from ever happening.

One by one the families of the victims come, and each child gets questioned about what happened and what they know of the Galra from their time with them. The stories are horrifying but they didn’t know much. They got some sketches of some of the perps but not much more.

When the last kid was done being questioned her parents asked to see Lance. Allura brought them back to the counseling room, and they paused just looking at him. Lance smiled at the little girl, and she launched herself at him. He hugged her tightly and said, “Be good for your parents okay. They’ve missed you very much.”

The girls mom broke down in tears, again, and joined in on their hug. “Thank you! Thank you so much for looking out for my baby. I-I know she would have been hurt so much worse if you hadn’t protected her the best you could.”

Lance didn’t say anything, he had nothing to say. He isn’t the hero they think he is. He couldn’t always save them.

After they left the team tried to figure out what to do with Lance. “It’s not right to leave him here. Or to put him in a shitty hotel.” Pidge snarled.

“I agree, but we couldn’t find his family. There’s not much we can do.” Allura explained.

“We’ll take him home.” Keith blurted, then looked to Shiro with pleading eyes. “We can’t just leave him here alone. He’s been through too much. We have a two guest rooms in our house. He’s been with the Galra too long. I doubt he knows how to cook or shop or anything. He’ll he never made it past the 2nd grade! We can help him learn while Pidge works on finding his family. Besides. I’m sure the Galra are going to be looking for him. He’s been with them too long, probably knows too much.”

“Not that he’ll tell us.” Pidge mutters.

Coran twists his mustache and nods, “I agree with Keith. Maybe getting to know you two will get him to open up some. To trust us. There’s no safer place for him.”

Eventually everyone agrees. So Shiro and Keith go to the counseling room. “Hey Lance.” Shiro greets him.

Lance looks up from a toy robot he had been fiddling around with.

“If it’s okay with you, you’ll be staying with us. We can keep you safe from the Galra.” Keith explains.

Lance gets up and follows them out. They get into a sleek red car, and Lance climbs into the back. Just like the trip to the agency, he leans his head against the glass and stares out the window. When they pull into Shiro and Keith’s driveway Lance gets out and looks at their house. It’s a small two story grey home with a white picket fence.

Keith opens the door and Cosmo, their dog bolts out and excitedly jumps around the two until he spots Lance. The dog cautiously walks over to him and sniffs at Lance’s leg. Lance looks terrified so Shiro calms him, “It’s okay. He won’t attack you. He’s very friendly.”

Nervously, Lance squats down and holds out his hand. Cosmo sniffs it then rubs his hand against it. Lance scratches his ear for a moment before getting up. The dog happily follows him as he enters Shiro and Keith’s home.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance stood awkwardly in Shiro and Keith’s kitchen. Their home is cozy. Nothing over the top, not like some of the places he was occasionally brought to. It’s definitely better than the warehouse basement where he spent most of his time. “Hey…you can come out of the kitchen. Keith is getting one of the spare rooms ready for you. You’re free to go anywhere in the house.”

Lance nods, he’s not sure he remembers how to do whatever he wants.

“Come on, I’ll show you your room.”

Lance follows him through the dining room, then the living room. They head up to the stairs and Shiro points things out.

“This is mine and Keith’s room. The bathroom. The other guest room. And here, is your room.”

Lance peeks in the door and sees Keith setting some clothes on the bed. He crosses his right arm over his chest and rubs his left arm. Keith looks over at him and shrugs, “I uh, figured you’d like something else to sleep in. I’m sorry if they don’t fit, you’re a bit taller than me, but if I gave you a pair of Shiro’s you’d be swimming in them!”

Lance just stares blankly, and Keith and Shiro move out of his way.

“If you’re hungry or anything, help yourself to anything in the kitchen.” Shiro adds as they walk away.

The two agents make their way down to the living room to give Lance his space. They snuggle up on the couch, and look for something cute or funny to watch on Netflix. They always do this after a hard case. It seems silly but it helps get their heads away from the evils in this world. They’re halfway through the movie when Lance slinks into the room and sits on the armchair next to the couch. He picks at his nails and constantly glances at the couple on the couch, so Keith asks. “Can we help you with anything?”

“I-I wanted to shower, but…don’t know how to turn it on, or…or what soaps I can use.”

Shiro smiles and nudges Keith until he sits up. he gestures for Lance to follow him and they go up to the bathroom. He shows Lance how to run their shower, gets a towel out for him, and tells him, “You can use any soaps you’d like, these ones are for hair, and that black bottle over there is body wash.”

Lance nods and starts to strip right there in front of Shiro. Shiro quickly looks away and exits the bathroom. They’ll definitely have to teach Lance that not everyone just undresses in front of other people. He ventures back downstairs and can’t help but smile when he sees Keith all sprawled out on the couch. Going up to his boyfriend he leans down and kisses the top of his head. Keith hums and opens his eyes.

The couple goes back to their routine after about ten minutes, Keith figured Lance would be done in the shower, so he goes up to use the restroom. When he reaches the door he can hear the water still running and quiet sobbing. Without knocking Keith enters the bathroom and hears Lance muttering through his tears, “Come off.”

“Lance?” Keith said softly not to startle the poor man. “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine.”

Keith can see Lances blurry figure through their clouded glass door for the shower. He knows he’s sitting curled up on the floor, and by the movements can tell he’s scrubbing at his skin.

“Please turn off the shower…” Keith requests, and is surprised when Lance does it. Then he grabs the towel off the counter and holds it up, “Okay, come on out.” Again Lance does as he’s asked, and Keith Keeps his eyes closed and Lance takes the towel from him and wraps it around his waist.

When Keith opens his eyes he can see how red Lance’s skin is, not only from scrubbing, but also from the temperature of the water. He must not have had any of the cold on. He wants to say something, but has always been bad at comforting people. Instead Lance gets tired of being stared at and goes to his room. Keith sighs, uses the bathroom, and then rejoins Shiro downstairs.

“Lance was crying…he-he was just sitting in the shower scrubbing himself too hard.”

Shiro pulls Keith down onto his lap and holds onto him. He doesn’t know what to say to make his love feel any better. He doesn’t even know where to start to help Lance. He decides he’ll figure something out in the morning, and re positions Keith, and starts another movie.

At some point they must have fallen asleep because they’re both jolted away by screaming. Keith is the first to bound up the stairs, afraid somehow the Galra found Lance, but when he bursts into his room, all he finds is Lance thrashing in his bed. Shiro rushes over to Lance’s bed and manages to grab onto his shoulders. “Lance! Lance wake up.”

Blue eyes snap open and he scrambles away from Shiro. He drops to the floor and pulls himself under the bed. Keith crouches down to see him, and he’s shaking, with his hands covering his head protectively. “I’m sorry! I won’t scream again! I didn’t mean to! Please! I’m sorry!”

Keith crawls over to the edge of the bed and reaches over, letting his hand rest near Lance, not touching him. “Hey, it’s okay. We aren’t going to hurt you for having a nightmare. We aren’t going to hurt you for any reason.” Lance heaves as he cries, trying to take in air. “Shh, Lance, calm down. Just breathe. It will be okay. They can’t hurt you anymore. We won’t let them.” Slowly Lance curls up, but moves his hands away from his head. With his fingers trembling he touches Keith’s hand. Keith takes that a permission and turns his hand over, taking a hold of Lance’s. He rubs his thumb back and forth over the back of Lances hand. “I-I know it doesn’t seem like it, but its okay…you’re okay.”

Lance looks at Keith with bloodshot eyes and shakes his head.

“Then tell me what we need to do to help you be okay. To make you feel safe.”

Lance takes in a shaky breath and more tears fall, “There’s nothing you can do.”

“Let us try.”

***

The next morning, the three of them sat in the dining room, all with dark rings under their eyes. Shiro was on his third cup of coffee when Lance started talking.

“They grabbed me at the grocery store. My grandma had taken me with her to get what we needed for dinner. I got distracted in the candy aisle. My grandma was in the next row and she had called for me, so I was about to go find her, when…when he grabbed me. I screamed, and kicked, and…the last thing I saw before I was thrown in a van was my distraught grandma trying to chase after me. I…I don’t even remember what the guy looked like. They all started to look the same after a while.”

Keith had stopped moving with his mug against his lips, surprised that Lance was talking to them.

“Agent Pidge…she said that my grandparents are dead.” He pauses. “I just hope she never blamed herself. I was the one who didn’t stay with her. It wasn’t her fault. It was mine.”

Shiro ran his hand through his hair. “It wasn’t your fault either. It was the Galra’s fault. They’re the one taking children. You did nothing wrong.”

Lance picked up the mug in front of him and took a sip. He coughed and made a face, “How can you drink this?”

Keith snorts, “You get used to it.”

Shiro hasn’t stopped watching Lance. It’s like a flip just switched. He was talking about his trauma, and the next he’s complaining about coffee. He decides it’s probably a defense mechanism. He takes another sip of his coffee then says, “Allura gave us the day off, to give us time to get you settled. So Keith and I were thinking we’d take you to the store to pick out some clothes. How does that sound?”

Lance fidgets a little but nods.

The three of them get changed. Keith wears his favorite black skinny jeans, a black tee and his cropped red jacket. Shiro just has a pair of blue jeans on and a plain gray shirt. Lance put the clothes he got from the agency yesterday. He looks back and forth between the two and says, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to get. I haven’t wore…clothes…in a long time. Just the tank top and the briefs.”

Keith’s heart shatters a little. “You can get whatever you want. We’ll walk through some stores and if something catches your eye you can try it on.”

They all pile into the nice red car again. This time Keith lets Lance sit upfront. When they pull into the parking lot of the mall, Lance’s eyes widen, “There’s a lot of cars here.”

Shiro hesitantly puts a hand on his shoulder, and this time Lance flinches but doesn’t move away. “There’s going to be a lot of people in there too. If you want to leave at any time, just let us know okay.”

Lance bites his lip but nods. As they walk through the parking lot Lance feels weird. He’s nervous, but…he’s also excited. He’s been held captive for so long that he can’t wait to experience anything and everything he’s missed. Yet there’s a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that this is all just a dream, that he’ll wake up back in the ware house. He takes in a deep breath of fresh air, and jumps a little when the doors slide open on their own.

Keith chuckles, so Lance glares at him, “Not funny.”

When they walk in the first thing Lance notices is the noise. It’s so loud he covers his ears for a moment. Shiro and Keith are watching him. Embarrassed he lowers his hands. The second thing he notices is the sheer amount of people. There’s multiple levels to this mall and there are people everywhere. He gulps a little but says, “L-lets do this.”

He stays between Shiro and Keith just to make sure he doesn’t lose either of them. The first few stores they go in, Lance is too afraid to try anything on, so he just looks. On their way to the next store he stops and sniffs the air. The other two watch him curiously as he follows the amazing smell to a store. “Do you want to go in there?” Shiro asks, “They sell lotions, soaps, bath bombs, and a lot of other things.”

Lands nods excitedly, and takes his time smelling everything. When the women working in the store walks up to him Lance drops what he’s holding and hides behind Shiro. “Sorry sir! I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just going to ask if I could help you with anything?”

Slowly Lance moves out from behind the large man, and points to a bright blue ball. “What is that and what does it do?”

She smiles, “It’s a bath bomb. This one in particular smells like blueberries, but also is infused with the essential oil that triggers stress relief. All you do is plop it into the bath water and relax as it fizzes and fills the bathroom with it’s amazing sent.”

Lance still looks a little confused, but Keith picks it up and says, “We’ll take it.”

After that the trip starts to go more smoothly, and Lance seems to loosen up the best he can. They take a break for lunch, and Lance again feels lost. He doesn’t really know what any of the food places are, there are so many in the food court that he doesn’t know where to start. So Keith picks out an Italian stand, and gets Lance a simple cheese pizza. He smiles when it’s set in front of him. Pizza he knows. He loved pizza as a kid.

Shiro grins as Lance takes a large bite, but that smile is soon replaced with a frown when Lance stiffens, sets down the Pizza and looks back and forth between the two. “A-are you sure…I don’t have to…do something for you two?” He places his hands on bother of their knees under the table and they both grab his wrists as he moves his hands up. “I know how to be discrete. I’ve had to at meetings before. I-I can do it if you want. I don’t…I don’t want to owe you anything.”

Keith pales, and Shiro feels sick. “No Lance. You do not need to do anything with us. We will _never_ ask for that as any kind of payment for anything. You also don’t owe us anything. We are happy to help.” Shiro explains.

Lance takes his hands away. “I’m sorry. I just…”

“Don’t be sorry. We know that’s what you’ve been taught. We aren’t mad, we just want you to know you don’t have to give yourself away anymore.” Keith says.

Nodding, Lance picks up his pizza and begins to eat again. He sips on the soda Keith got him and hums, “That’s good.”

Keith smiles, “Yeah it is. Are you still hungry?”

“Yes, but…my stomach already hurts.” Lance whines.

“We’ll get a snack in a little bit once your pizza settles.” Shiro suggests.

They get rid of their trash and head off to more stores. Lance actually picks out some clothes to try on and finds a couple outfits. The favorite thing he’s found so far is a green jacket with a gray hood. It looks nice, but really comfortable too.

Lance yawned as they entered another store, this one is full of shoes. He’s awed by all the different types of shoes, and giggles at the little baby ones. Feeling confident, he wanders to the next row on his own, and as he looks another man comes into the same aisle. He notices him out of the corner of his eye, and tries to ignore him, he’s probably just another shopper. So he keeps looking, finding a pair with blue stripes that spike his interest. Then the next time he notices the man he’s almost right next to him, and panic fills him. He screams, pulling shoes off the shelf and throwing them as hard as he can at the man, and breaking into hysterics.

Shiro and Keith skid into the aisle and Shiro grabs a hold of Lance, “It’s okay. You’re okay. He’s not going to take you.”

Lance shrinks to the floor, Shiro going down with him. He curls up as tight as he can, grabs onto his hair, and mutters incoherently. Keith shows his badge and apologizes to the shopper and the store manager. Then he joins Lance and Shiro on the floor. Carefully he sets his hand on Lance’s back, and rubs small circles on it. Shiro continues to try and calm him, and Keith wishes he knew how to take Lance’s pain away, but he can’t.

Finally after about an hour, Lance calms down enough that they can leave. They both have their arm around him as they walk, and they go straight to their car. Again, Lance sits in the front seat, head on the window, arms crossed. “I’m sorry.” He mutters.

“Don’t be. We’re sorry we pushed you too quickly. We should have never taken you to the mall not even two days after you were found.” Keith reassures him.

The rest of the ride is silent and when they get home Lance goes straight to his room, leaving the shopping bags Shiro carried in, in the kitchen. Neither Keith nor Shiro disturb Lance for the rest of the afternoon.

Just before Keith was about to make dinner, their doorbell rings. Shiro answers it and Keith can hear Hunk’s voice. He leaves the kitchen and nods a greeting to Hunk and Shay. They’re both holding two grocery bags and Hunk shrugs, “I wanted to come make you guys dinner. Thought maybe it might help.”

“We brought dessert!” Allura and Coran say coming up behind them.

Then Pidge squeezes past all of them and mumbles, “You get nothing from me. You know I suck at cooking.”

Shiro laughs, and lets not only his teammates but his friends in. Hunk and Shay go to work right away making food, and the rest go into the living room. They must have been getting loud because the creek of the stairs alerts Keith that Lance is coming down. He looks over, and sees the young man sitting about half way down them looking through the banister. Keith catches his eye and he hurries back up the stairs, and his door slams.

Not wanting to overwhelm him again they leave him be, until Hunk says dinner is ready. So Shiro heads up stairs and knocks on Lance’s door. The door opens and Lance looks up at Shiro. “Are you hungry?”

Lance nods slightly.

“Good. Hunk is an amazing cook! You’ll love whatever it is he made.”

Lance sighs. He knows Keith and Shiro don’t demand payment…but their friends might. Shiro leads him into the dining room and Lance sits between him and Shiro. He recognizes the nurse from the agency, and is surprised she’s not looking at him with pity. Instead there’s a soft smile on her face that’s…welcoming.

Lance looks at his plate and Hunk says, “It’s chicken parmesan. If you try it and don’t like it I can always make you something different.”

Lance barely looks at the large man and picks up the chicken. Before he can bite it, Keith stops him. “Here let me cut it for you.”

Lance sets it back down and watches as Keith takes his fork and knife and slices up the meat. Once he’s done, Lance uses his fork, awkwardly stabbing the meet and bringing it up to his mouth. No one mentions his weird use of utensils, and he’s glad for it. He hasn’t used them in too many years. He’s able to eat about half of the chicken before his stomach starts to protest. He takes a small drink of water, and when no one is looking, he slips under the table.

Hunk is seated directly across from him, so he scoots closer and is about to get to work. When his hand touches him though the big man jumps up, knocking his chair over as he backs up. He looks down at Lance horrified, and Lance…he’s just confused.

Shiro goes to stand but Shay gestures for him to stay. “Lance…may we speak in the other room?”

“Sure.” He says, crawling out from under the table.

They enter the living room and sit on the couch. Shay takes a hold of his hand and begins. “I know you are probably very confused. You’ve been trained for over ten years to act and do certain things for certain reasons, but listen to me very carefully okay. The Galra are terrible, horrible, people. What they did to you and those kids is wrong. When someone does something for you, all you have to do is say thank you. Don’t ever let anyone make you believe that you have to do something for them or please them. Because that’s wrong. Those are the type of people who hurt others. I promise you that no one will beat you or starve you for not giving yourself to them. The Galra put you through unimaginable things, that you will never have to go through again. Okay?”

Lance nods, “Okay. I’m sorry. It’s hard to remember I’m not there. I’m so scared that this is all just an illusion I made up to survive another day.”

Shay hums, then pulls Lance into her arms. “I can’t promise you this life will be easy. Once the investigation starts you might have to relive some of the horrors you’ve been though, but I know Voltron will do whatever they can to take the Galra down.”

Lance lets himself melt into Shay’s embrace. It’s been so long since someone has held him so gently, so…comfortingly. “Will you help me unlearn all the wrong I was taught?”

“Of course sweetie, we all will.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER: Lance starts to tell his story about his time with the Galra. I don't go into graphic details, but if non-con is something you have a hard time with I suggest skipping over when they start to question Lance. Or if you're nervous to read it at all let me know and I'll send you the chapter with it cut out.

Keith groaned as his alarm went off. He picked up his phone and silenced it, trying not to wake Shiro. He always gets up early before they go into work so he can go for a run, to clear his head for the day. He’s not entirely ready to face what the day will bring. They’ll have to question Lance, since they hadn’t yet. Their hands were full with the kids and teens. Besides Lance will be their most reliable source, the one with the most information for how long he had been with the Galra. Keith finally pushes himself out of bed, and makes his way to the bathroom.

After relieving himself and brushing his teeth, he pulls his hair into a messy ponytail to keep most of it off his neck while he runs. Then he returns to his and Shiro’s room, and puts on a pair of shorts and a tank top. Slipping his socks on quickly he heads downstairs to get his shoes. He’s headed straight for the door, but pauses when he sees a mop of Brown hair in the living room. He takes a few steps into the room, quietly just incase Lance was sleeping. He rounds the corner of the couch to see Lance glaring at one of their books.

“Lance? You okay?”

Blue eyes meet his and he shrugs. Then his eyes return to the book. “It’s weird ya know. I _know_ this is a book. I _know_ it’s supposed to tell stories, but…but I can’t—” he angrily slams the book shut and tosses it on the table.

“You can’t read?” Keith clarifies.

Lance nods, crossing his arms and huffing.

Not knowing how to approach this subject without making Lance feel embarrassed or even dumb, Keith instead asks, “Do you want to go for a run with me?”

It sounds like Lance chuckles a little, but it’s rough and clearly not something he’s done on a regular basis. “I’d slow you down.”

“Speed doesn’t matter. I run to clear my head, to feel a moment of freedom from everything going on around me.” He pauses and adds, “I have some shorts you can borrow, and we got you a pair of tennis shoes yesterday.”

Slowly, Lance looks at him and finally says, “Okay.”

Keith gets him shorts and then waits downstairs as Lance gets changed. When he’s ready, they step outside. Keith takes a deep breath. The air is a little chilly, but he knows they’ll be thankful for it once they start. He looks over to Lance who gestures to lead the way, so Keith starts out with a slow jog, that Lance can easily keep up with. They don’t talk, they just run.

After a while Keith picks up the pace and Lance matches him once more. He can tell by how Lance is panting that he’s having a hard time keeping up, but isn’t showing signs of giving up. _He’s so strong_. Keith thinks. He’d have to be in order to survive for so long with the Galra.

Slowing to a stop, Keith decides they should walk back. Lance is still recovering after all. It can’t be easy to run when his body has barely enough nutrients to keep going as it is. The tan-skinned man heaves as they walk, taking in air like he’ll never breathe again. “How…do you… _enjoy_ …this?”

Keith laughs, “If you keep doing it you’ll get in shape, and it will get easier and easier.”

“Does Shiro run?”

“Sometimes. He normally does it at home in our basement. We have a treadmill and some weight equipment. Or he’ll head to the agency’s gym and work out for an hour or two there.” Keith explains, lifting his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face.

When they get back and walk into the house Keith can smell bacon as soon as the door opens. The two of them round the corner into the kitchen and Shiro walks over to Keith and kisses him softly. “Breakfast is almost ready.” He blushes a little when he sees Lance, “Oh, hey! I thought you were still in bed.”

Lance shakes his head, and disappears from the kitchen, mumbling something about a shower. Keith and Shiro both keep an eye on the time, to make sure Lance isn’t having another breakdown in the shower. They’re both relieved when he comes downstairs in a little over ten minutes. He’s wearing one of his new outfits. Blue jeans, a white and blue quarter sleeve shirt, and the green jacket he loved.

Shiro beckons him over and asks, “Can you help me bring some of this out to the table?”

Lance nods, grabbing the three cups of milk, bringing them to the table, then returning to take some plates of food out with him. Shiro and Keith bring the rest, and they all sit at the table. Shiro and Keith start dishing their plates with eggs, bacon, and toast. Lance waits until they are done, and then grabs just a little for himself.

Keith points at the blue eyed mans plate, “You can have more than that.”

Lance looks down at his plate and then at Keith’s and Shiro’s. “I’m okay. You two get what you need. I’ll be fine.”

Worry settles over Shiro’s features. “I’m guessing you always let the others eat before you took any?” Pushing eggs around his plate Lance shrugs. He doesn’t want to talk about it right now. Shiro glances at Keith and reassures Lance, “You can eat however much you want. We have plenty of food and can always make more.”

Lance seems to ignore them, not taking anymore, and starts to eat the little he has on his plate. When he’s finished, he puts his plate in the sink, like he saw them do yesterday. He goes back to the living room and picks up the book that he was looking at earlier.

Keith and Shiro get ready for work. Shiro wears black pants, with a black long sleeve shirt, with a black and white vest over the top. Keith again adorns himself in all black, with his cropped red jacket. When they get Lance and get into the car, Lance questions, “Why do you wear a coat that’s too small?”

Shiro bursts out laughing, and Keith crosses his arms, “It’s not too small. It’s made to be short.”

“Oh…weird.”

For the rest of the ride to the agency, Lance pulls his feet up onto the seat, and wraps his arms around his legs. He remembers what Shay had said last night. That they were going to ask him questions, make him relive the things he had been through, and he really doesn’t want to. When they get to the large silver and gray building, they park in the underground garage again.

This time they stop at a desk on the way to the Voltron offices. “Rolo, I need a visitor pass made for Lance please, just in case anyone questions why he’s around.” Shiro says.

Rolo directs Lance to stand on a little x in front of the desk and says, “Okay, I’m just going to take your picture for your visitor I.D.”

Lance furrows his brows and asks, “Do I need to undress?”

The man behind the desk laughs, thinking it was a joke, but Keith quickly answers, “No, this is just a regular picture of your face.”

Lance stands still and Rolo takes the picture, and quickly prints him an I.D. Shiro grabs it and clips it to Lance’s jacket, happy that Lance only watched him, and didn’t flinch away. The three men then went through a few hallways and reached a large door that says, “Team Voltron” on the glass. When they entered Pidge shot up from her desk and shrieked, “I have good news!”

“What?” both Keith and Shiro ask.

“I have a lead on Lance’s family! I put McClain in all databases and found an arrest report on a Veronica McClain for disturbing the peace. Allura has myself, Coran, and Hunk leaving in an hour to take the jet to Florida! We’re going to meet up with the police department there and get any information we can on this Veronica.”

“Vee?” Lance says. “She was in trouble?”

“You recognize the name?” Pidge asks.

“Uh yeah. My older sisters name is Veronica. Why was she in trouble?”

Pidge bounds over to her desk and types and few things into her computer. “The details are vague, but it says she was handing out fliers and an argument had broken out, so someone called the cops. It doesn’t look like she did any jail time or probation or anything.”

“Is…is there a picture?” Lance asks, trying not to get too hopeful that it’s actually his sister.

“No, but we’ll find out if it’s your sister for you, okay? Then we’ll bring your family here to you if it is them.”

Lance still doesn’t get his hopes up. instead he walks away from everyone and into the counseling room. He looks through all the toys and the bookshelf, and finds a coloring book and some markers. He sits on the floor next to the table since he’s too big for the kid chairs. He carefully rips out a page from the book of a shark with an underwater scene around it. He can’t remember the last time he colored, or do anything fun. So he lets himself get lost in it and enjoy what he’s doing.

Keith watches him through the two-way mirror. “I can’t do this.” He mumbles to himself. Lance is twenty-two, but doesn’t know anything about life. He’s been deprived of his childhood, deprived of happiness, and used and abused by the Galra. He knows they need to question him today, but he has a feeling he’s not going to want to hear any of it.

Shiro comes up to him and slides his arm around Keith’s waist.

Keith leans into his boyfriend and sighs, “This morning I found him looking at a book. Angry that he couldn’t read it. Now…now he’s coloring like he’s still a kid. Shiro…how could anyone do this to another person?”

“I don’t know, but I do know we’re going to help him. Today after work I’ll stop at the store and get some kid books and learning books. If he wants to read…we’ll teach him. He should have basic knowledge from before he was taken. It’s just a matter of practice and learning more complicated words and stories.”

Just then the door slams open and Allura is dragging in one of the men they had taken into custody when they raided the warehouse. He’s a scruffy looking guy, and is putting up quite the fight, but Allura can handle her own. Lance must have heard the scuffle because he gets up and comes out of the room. The man spots him and Lance freezes. “You!” the man screams, “Say anything and you’re dead! Along with the others. They’ll find you and kill all of you!” Lance pales and the man smirks, “Or maybe they’ll just use you over and over again. You always liked that. Liked when we all took turns!”

“And that right there is a confession to rape. So even if you don’t give up your leaders you’re going away.” Allura growled at him.

“It’s not rape if the slut enjoyed it!” The man sneers.

Keith crosses the room before Shiro can stop him. He grabs the man and shoves him against the wall, “Shut your mouth!”

He struggles against Keith, unable to fight back with his hands cuffed behind his back. “Oh, I see. You’re gonna keep him for yourself huh? He’s a good fuck. Even better with his mouth.” Keith pulls his hand back and decks the guy across the jaw, then the nose, and is about to hit him again but Hunk and Shiro pull him back. The man smirks even though his lip and nose are bleeding. As Allura moves him to an interrogation room he blows kisses to Lance, and licks his lips.

When he’s shut into the room, Keith turns to Lance. He’s pale, and trembling. Slowly Keith approached him, hesitatingly taking one of his hands. “It’s okay. What he said isn’t true. They won’t find you again. Okay?”

Lance shook his head violently, so much that Keith reached up and stopped his head from moving, afraid the man was going to hurt himself. “I-I…Keith…I didn’t like it. I swear…I… _hated_ it. I-I _hate_ all of them.”

Keith swipes away Lance’s tears with his thumbs, “We know okay. We know that they hurt you. That you didn’t willingly go with them or do the things they want.”

“But I did do it willingly!”

“What are you talking about?’

Lance cries harder. “They…I…I couldn’t let them hurt the kids, so I offered myself. I always did. I…I _let them use me_ however they wanted. I’m disgusting.”

“No, Lance, you are not disgusting. You did what you had to, to protect the kids and yourself. Just because you didn’t fight didn’t make it okay for them to do. They still kidnaped you, still abused you. None of this is your fault.”

“Maybe, we should go talk now. Do you want to sit in the counseling room?” Shiro said, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder, getting him to drop his hands from Lance’s face.

Lance doesn’t answer, he just turns around and enters the room. He sits back down on the floor, tears out another coloring page and starts to color again like nothing happened. Shiro flips a switch to turn on the video camera, to record any information Lance may give them. Keith stands near the double sided mirror leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Shiro sits down on the floor next to Lance and asks, “Can you tell me your name? Just for the recording.”

“Lance McClain.” Lance says, his voice nasally from his nose being stuffed up from crying.

“How old were you when the Galra kidnapped you?”

“Eight.”

Shiro looks down at the photo that Lance is coloring and sighs a little, “This may be difficult Lance, but I need you to tell me the types of things they made you do over the years. Start at the beginning okay.”

Lance nods, eyes never leaving his work. “When they first took me. They kept me in a closet for a long time. Until I learned that if I didn’t cry they would let me out. At first all they did was hit me if I talked back, asked to go home, or cried. Eventually I was made to change into a white tank top and just some boxers. Then they kept me in the basement of the warehouse. There were other’s. All older than me.” Lance pauses as he caps his marker and picks up a blue one. “Probably a couple days after I was there…one of the girls. She was in trouble I guess, because they tied ropes around her wrists. The ones that are connected to the floor by the mattress. I remember her screaming when one, General, came in.”

“General?” Keith asks for clarification.

“Yeah, that’s what he called his members.” Lance answers nonchalantly.

“Who is he?” Shiro asks.

Lance shrugs, and continues with his story. “One of the boys. I think his name was James…he covered my ears and held my head against his body, making me face the wall. I could still hear her screaming. When it was over James let go of me. The General was buckling his belt and then left. James had gone over and helped the girl put her underwear back on. Then untied her. For the longest time…James would always have me look away, always cover my ears, until one day… _he_ brought his son in. The boy was probably around James’ age. _HE_ grabbed my arm and started dragging me to the mattress. But then James…he begged him to use him instead. Which I guess pleased _him_ because he pushed me away and tied James down on his stomach. _He_ left his son in there with us, and told him to have fun. I-I stared the whole time. I watched as James grit his teeth, keeping from making a sound. Whenever I would watch what the other boy was doing, James would snap his fingers and shake his head. So I turned around and faced the wall. It went on like that for a while. With James always taking my place. Until it didn’t work anymore. “

Shiro took a shaky breath, “What happened then?”

Lance closed his eyes and gripped the marker tighter, “ _He_ came down and threw me on the mattress. I remembered what happened to James. How…how they stuck their…thing…in his butt. I-I didn’t want that. So I kicked and screamed, but he just kicked me until I was in too much pain to move.” A tear runs down Lance’s cheek and he swallows hard, “It hurt…so bad. Any time I screamed he just moved rougher. I looked at James, and he held his finger to his mouth. So…so I bit my lip, cried as quietly as I could. I thought it was never going to end, but he grunted and stopped moving and then my insides started to sting. It burned so bad but I didn’t scream. I kept my mouth shut, and when he finally left I sobbed. James, he helped me get dressed, and untied me. I asked why it burned, and he told me it’s because I probably tore. I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but I remember blood running down my legs.”

“Lance, can you tell us his name please?” Shiro pleads

“I-I can’t. You heard what his general said. He’ll…he’ll find me and kill me. He’ll know it was me. I was the only one who went to meetings with him. I-I know too much.”

Keith sighs and finally joins them on the floor. “You had said they trained you to do things. What does that mean?”

“Well whenever food was given, one of us would have to thank them. By either letting them use us. Or using our hand or mouth. One by one the older kids disappeared. Before I knew it I was taking care of little kids. I was the one following the rules. I would give the payment for food, and for water. I would do any chores they asked of us, because I knew it always ended in them being displeased no matter how well the task was completed. If we screamed, we were punished. They added the chains on the walls after I begged them to stop. When they just kept going and going and going, and I couldn’t take it anymore. After they were put in, I was chained to the wall and they used different knifes on my back. Once I even think it was a whip, but I kind of stopped paying attention after a while.”

“You said you went to meetings. What were these meetings about normally?” Shiro asked, tearing out a new coloring sheet for Lance.

Lance shrugged again, “Drugs mostly. Different dealers would come in and talk to _him_ about how their sales were. Sometimes it was about weapons. Other times it was about kids. _He_ would use me as a demonstration on how well he trains us. I learned not to get attached to anyone, because they were always sold. That’s probably what happened to those who were older than me, or they were killed. Personally, I wish they would have killed me a long time ago, but I had heard him tell a person who wanted to buy me that I wasn’t for sale because I was his favorite and best trained slave. I used to sit at his feet, or have to use my mouth on him while he was listening to the others talk. I always hated that because I wasn’t allowed to make him feel good. He had to focus after all, so all I could do was hold it in my mouth. If I pulled off or anything he would shove it in until I couldn’t breathe.” He shuddered and asks, “Can we stop now?”

Shiro nods, “Yeah, we can take a break okay. But we really need you to consider telling us who _he_ is.”

Lance ignores him, so Shiro turns off the camera, and Keith gets up. “Thank you.”

Lance looks up at him, “You won’t let them get me again, right?”

“We’ll never let any of them get you.” He goes to touch Lance’s shoulder but Lance moves out of reach. Keith retracts his hand with a small apology, and he and Shiro leave the room.

Once the door shuts Keith runs to the nearest trash can and empties his stomach into it. He dry heaves for a while, and Shiro rubs his back. “Shiro…did…did you hear the things he said?”

“I did…this is probably one of the worst cases we’ve ever had. I knew the Galra were bad…but this…we need to stop them. There’s no saying when they’ll start taking kids again.”

Allura slams the door to the interrogation room and heaves a heavy sigh, “That man…is…unbearable.”

“What happened?” Shiro asked.

“He wouldn’t shut up about Lance. I have plenty to put that scum bag away but…if what he’s saying is true…Lance is…he’s…guys I don’t know if any amount of therapy will help him.”

“I don’t believe that!” Keith snarls. “He is so incredibly strong. There is no way he won’t recover. Of course he won’t ever forget, won’t ever be who he would have become if he hadn’t been kidnapped, but I won’t give up on him.”

Allura pinches the bridge of her nose and decides not to argue, “Then we need to get him to see Dr. Holt as soon as possible.”

“Do you really think Sam can help him?” Shiro asks.

“He’s the best we have. If he can’t…I don’t know who can.”

Keith leaves bumping his shoulder against Allura’s, almost knocking her off balance. She doesn’t say anything through because she knows he’s just protective. This case is hard. They never expected to find a room full of people. He makes his way to the gym, goes right over to the punching bag and just goes wild. The couple of days that he’s known Lance he can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to hurt him. Even after everything that’s happened to him he still has an air of innocents around him. He became an FBI agent to help people and take down scum bags like the Galra. Who he watched kill his parents.

Once he tires out, he hits the bag one more time, before dropping to his knees. He could have been like Lance. If he hadn’t hidden in the closet, hadn’t covered his mouth as each of his parents were shot. He would have ended up in that warehouse. He clenches his fists and screams in anger. Maybe he’s not actually cut out to be apart of Voltron. He’s not strong enough to handle this.

“Keith…” Lance’s voice echoes in the gym.

“Lance, uh…what are you doing in here?”

“I was using the bathroom…heard a scream. Are you okay?”

Keith stands up and rubs the back of his neck. “I was just upset. Thinking about my past, and about the things you’ve been through.”

“What happened in your past?”

“Lets go back to the counseling room. I’ll tell you on the way.” Keith gestures toward the door. Lance follows close by and Keith starts, “When I was about ten, my dad wouldn’t sell his property to the Galra. They thought how seclusive it was it would be a perfect place to work out of or whatever. They don’t like being told no.”

“Yeah, I know that much.” Lance says with a sad chuckle.

“They came to our house one night, and killed my parents. I hid well enough and I guess they thought I wasn’t there.” Keith pauses, “When they left I snuck out and went for help, but when the cops got there the Galra had already cleaned the place up, so they just thought I was some street kid making things up. I was put into foster care after that. I was so angry with the cops, so frustrated. I had decided not long after that I would work my way up in law enforcement and get to the FBI to catch those son of a bitches.”

“How old are you?” Lance asks randomly.

“I’m twenty-three.”

“Isn’t that young for the FBI?”

Keith smiles, “Yeah, we’re all pretty young. Voltron took us all right from the academy. They wanted new officers that weren’t biased to old ways or too afraid to get the tough cases.”

Lance nods and crosses his arms, “You know…I’m glad they didn’t find you.” Keith raises and eyebrow and Lance explains, “If they had found you, they probably would have kept you. You’re too good of a person to be put through the things I’ve done and seen.”

Keith stops right outside of Voltron's offices, “You’re too good for it too Lance. You didn’t deserve to have that life.”


	4. Chapter 4

Shiro watches amused as Lance lays on the floor on his stomach. His legs are bent, kicking back and forth. He has his head in his hand and hums softly as he flips through the pages of a book about a puppy. Speaking of puppies, Cosmo is curled up next to Lance, sleeping peacefully. Keith is cooking dinner and Shiro just can’t stop staring. He’s glad he could bring a little joy to Lance’s life, and is even more glad that he’s standing right here right now because Lance lets out the most adorable giggle he has ever heard. He shuts the book, and takes the next one off the top of the stack that Shiro had gotten him.

Keith slides up next to him, slipping his hand into one of Shiro’s back pockets. He leads his head against the larger man’s shoulder and announces, “Dinners ready.”

“Not hungry.” Lance whines, flipping through the new book he started.

“Come on Lance, the books will be there when you’re done eating.”

He grumbles but gets up, Cosmo moving with him. He plops down in a chair and stares at the food in front of him. Shiro smiles at Keith when they join Lance, happy to know that Keith dished Lance’s plate. It might be a little too full, but at least he’ll actually eat more than a couple of bites. “What is it?” Lance asks, pushing veggies around.

“It’s steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and broccoli.” Keith answers, taking a bite.

“Why is it such small pieces?”

“I cut it for you. I figured it would be easier.”

Lance glares down at his plate, pushes it away, and storms out of the dining room. Shiro gets up to follow him and finds Lance pacing in the living room. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

The blue-eyed man looks distant, like he’s spacing out. Suddenly he takes his jacket off, then his shirt, and drops his pants, leaving him only in his boxers. He crosses his arms over his chest, and starts to pace again. Shiro frowns at how slim the man still is, but knows it will take more than a few days to put some meat on his bones.

“Lance?” Shiro tries to talk to him again.

He violently flinches, almost tripping over Cosmo who had come to investigate the tension. Not answering, Lance moves quickly past Shiro, and back into the dining room. He hears Keith’s shock, and when he rounds the corner can see why. Lance sat himself right in Keith’s lap, with his back to Keith’s chest. Keith’s hands are in the air, confusion written all over his face. Lance still has a dazed look, and he can see the unshed tears as he starts to roll his hips.

“Lance stop!” Keith shouts, grabbing on to his waist to still him.

“I-I’m sorry.” Lance mumbles, then he picks up Keith’s steak knife, pries his hand from his waist, and puts the knife in the dark haired man’s hand. He scoots forward on Keith’s lap, putting space between them. “I-I didn’t mean to disappoint you. I won’t scream. I promise.”

Keith lets the knife fall to the floor, and Shiro does the only thing he can think of and scoops Lance up off of Keith’s lap. Carrying him bridal style, Shiro takes Lance up to his room and sets him on his bed. He seems to melt into the soft blankets, and the damn breaks. He grips onto the blanket and sobs. His entire body convulses as the cries practically rip from his body. Shiro sits on the floor across from the bed, back against the wall. Pulling his legs up he rests his elbows on his knees and buries his head in his hands. With each of Lance’s sobs, he grips tighter and tighter onto his hair. How are they supposed to help him when they don’t even know what triggers him? Was it because he had to talk about his time with the Galra today? Or was it because Keith dished his plate and cut his steak? He was just fine reading his books on the floor. They should have just left him alone. They should have just left him in the care of the agencies programs for witness protection. He groans, no, they could and would never do that. He doesn’t regret taking Lance home with them. He just wishes he could help him better.

“Shiro.” Lance croaks.

“Hmm?”

“I can’t do it anymore.”

Shiro lifts his head, “Do what?”

“Pretend like I’m not broken.”

Pushing himself off the floor Shiro sits on the edge of Lance’s bed. Cautiously he brushes the soft brown hair out of Lance’s face. “You’re not broken. You’ve been in captivity for fourteen years. It’s going to take time to forget the things they engrained in you. Tomorrow, we’re going to take you to see Doctor Sam Holt, he’ll help you get everything mentally straightened out. It won’t magically make everything easier, but he’ll give you the tools you need to fight. And you know what?”

“What?” Lance turns his head to look up at Shiro.

“You’re an amazing fighter. You’ve fought for so, so long, and I know you have more fight in you. I know you can heal from the trauma they put you through. I saw a glimpse of it, when you were reading. I saw what the happy, carefree Lance could be like. It made my heart very happy to see that, and I know with time, you’ll see it too.”

Lance blinked at him and whispered, “Thank you.” When he turned his face away again he asked, “Does Keith hate me now?”

“No, I don’t.” Keith says from the doorway. He moves into the room and sits on Lance’s other side. He holds up a book and says, “This was the one you were reading before I called you for dinner. Would you like to continue it?”

Lance looks at the book and then to Keith, “Could you read it to me?”

Nodding, Keith opens the cover and begins, “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away—”

 

*****

Keith wakes up to pounding on the door. He and Shiro had promised to stay with Lance until he fell asleep, and they were both sitting at the top of the bed with their backs against the head board. They must have fallen asleep too, if the kink in Keith’s neck is any indicator. He looks down at Lance who is curled in a ball the best he can be, with both Shiro and Keith sitting on his bed. He has one hand gripping Keith’s shirt, and the other crossed against his stomach, latched onto Shiro’s hand.

When the pounding sounds through the house again, Keith carefully removes Lance’s hand from his shirt, and rushes down the stairs. He opens the door to a very pissed off Hunk. “Where have you guys been? It’s almost eleven! We have been worried sick! Your phones go straight to voice mail! We thought the fricken Galra got you! Allura said to give you time that maybe something had happened with Lance, but I couldn’t take it anymore!” He pokes Keith in the chest and growls, “Never. Do. That. To. Us. Again!”

Keith rubs the spot on his chest and groans, “Point taken, geez Hunk.” He moves so Hunk can come in then realizes something, “Aren’t you supposed to be in Florida?”

“We got back this morning. Something you would have known if you had shown up to work!”

“Sorry we had a bit of a…set back last night. We fell asleep in Lance’s room, and our phones must have died because my alarm didn’t go off this morning.”

“Wait a second. Why were you in Lances room?”

Keith explains what had happened at dinner and how Lance had begged them to wait until he fell asleep. “Luckily his appointment with Sam isn’t until this afternoon, so we didn’t fuck today up too bad.”

Hunk goes into the kitchen and Keith can hear him getting pots and pans out. Right now, he’s pretty thankful Hunk was the one who came to get them. They’ll get a good meal out of it and not get murdered by Allura where there are no witnesses. He heads back upstairs, and freezes in Lance’s doorway. Shiro is still fast asleep, looking as uncomfortable as ever with his back against the headboard and his neck bent, head hanging. It’s Lance that makes him pauses and stare. He moved in his sleep, he has both arms wrapped around Shiro’s waist and his face buried against Shiro’s stomach. Many things run through Keith’s head, but he’s surprised that none of them include jealousy.

He walks into the room and runs his fingers through Shiro’s hair. His eyes blink open and Keith smiles, “Good Morning, Takashi.”

Shiro smiles, until he turns his head and winces, “Ouch…” Shiro reaches up and rubs at his neck. Then he seems to realize where he is. “Oh.” He looks down at Lance, then back to Keith. He opens his mouth to say something but Keith stops him.

“It’s fine. Surprisingly, my insane jealousy is taking a break today…it’s kinda cute actually.” Keith chuckles. “Anyway, Hunk is here. We over slept…by a lot.” Then he turns his attention to Lance. He does the same thing he did to Shiro, and runs his fingers through his brown locks.

Lance groans and buries his face more into Shiro’s stomach.

“Lance, it’s time to get up.” Shiro says.

The tan-skinned man roles onto his back and stretches, “Oh, um sorry…” Lance mutters getting off of Shiro’s lap.

“No need to apologize. How about we all get ready? Hunk is downstairs making food.” Keith sees the dread cross Lances face. “Before you panic. I have a thought about how to help you feel like you don’t owe us anything. How about after you get dressed, you go and help Hunk with the food. That way he’s not giving it to you, you’re cooking it for yourself?”

Lance furrows his brow in thought but then perks up, “I think…I think that might be okay.” He gets up and rushes out of the room and into the bathroom. He gets ready in record time and Keith laughs as they hear hurried steps down the stairs.

The couple gets ready next, not quite as quickly as Lance. Once finished they head downstairs and straight to the kitchen to see what Lance and Hunk are up to.

Lance is standing in front of the stove, he adds different things to the pan that Hunk hands him. Hunk gives him little tips, telling him to keep stirring, so it doesn’t burn. Then he goes into how everything can be good with the proper seasoning.

“It smells good.” Lance says, still stirring, concentrating hard not to mess up Hunk’s dish.

Hunk pulls down some plates, then gets out some tortilla shells. “We would have made this from scratch too, but Allura would have all our heads if I took the time to do that.”

Hunk places one shell on each plate and then holds one up at a time for Lance to dish, what Keith and Shiro can now see is chicken fajitas. Hunk turns the burner off, and moves the pan into the sink. Lance is bouncing on the balls of his feet in front of the plates, and Hunk pulls out toppings. He hands Lance shredded cheese and bursts out laughing when Lance dumps half the bag onto one plate.

“What?” Lance asked, afraid he did something wrong.

“Nothing! I love cheese, but that’s a little much.” Hunk chuckles.

Lance sets the bag down like it burned him and backs away. He covers his head with his arms and braces himself.

“Hey, no, no! You’re not in trouble!” Hunk rushes. “It was just funny is all. It’s okay to make silly mistakes like that. Heck it’s okay to make big mistakes too.”

Lance slowly lowers his arms, and looks at the plate piled with cheese. “I guess that kind of is a lot.” Hunk almost glows he smiles so wide, and it must be contagious because Keith and Shiro get a glimpse of the first real smile they’ve seen on Lance’s face. Not just the adoring one he had for the kids playing, not the forced one when he felt uncomfortable. This smile though, is wide and bright, his eyes lighting up with it.

Hunk helps him spread out the cheese, and then they add sour cream. “Okay, buddy, pick out the one you want.”

Lance doesn’t even hesitate and grabs one of the plates, completely ignores that Shiro and Keith are just standing there watching them, and goes to the dining room. Shiro and Keith grab a plate and hunk follows them to join Lance. They eat in a comfortable silence and when they’re finished Keith hums satisfied, “Thank you Lance, for cooking for us.”

They see Lance light up again and he takes his last bite before saying, “It was fun. I like cooking with Hunk.” Normally it probably would have grossed the men out that someone spoke with their mouth full, but they have time to work on manners with Lance in the future. Right now they’re all just happy that they figured out a way he can eat without thinking he has to use himself as payment for the food.

Shiro lets Lance watch him do dishes, showing him how he rinses the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Then they pile into their red car, Hunk getting into his yellow jeep, and head to the agency. This time, Lance doesn’t lean his head against the window, and doesn’t sit with his arms crossed. Instead he points things out through the window, asking questions when he’s curious.

The first face they see when they open the door to the Voltron offices is Allura’s. She’s angry…so angry, but when Keith explains what happened she lightens up a little. Lance starts to walk over to the counseling room, since that seems to be where they always put him.

Before he can get too far Pidge gets up from her desk. “One second Lance. Stay where you are.” Lance freezes, and watches her with confusion. She scurries over to the door to the counseling room, and opens it. “Lets just start with one of you. We don’t want to overwhelm him.” Pidge says into the room.

She backs away giving room to a shorter women, with the same tan skin and blue eyes that Lance has.

“Mama…” Lance whispers. “MAMA!” He screams and runs over to her enveloping her into a hug. The older women is unable to hold his weight and Pidge helps them down to the floor. She speaks in rapid Spanish trying to calm her son. She rocks him back and forth, shushing his apologies, and squeezing him like if she lets go he’ll disappear again.


	5. Chapter 5

While Lance spent a few hours with his parents and his siblings the team had been hard at work trying to find anything incriminating in the files Pidge got from the warehouse. Keith was getting bored, so far everything is encrypted. Computers really isn’t his thing, really it’s no ones thing except for Pidge’s. As she got the files open and readable, she would send them off to each of the team members one by one.

Keith’s computer dings with an email from Pidge. Rubbing a hand down his face he gets ready for another boring document. He opens the file and first finds a list of names. He tilts his head, thinking maybe it was another list of dealers, but then the next page has him hesitating. It’s picture after picture of kids and teens. He recognizes the ones they rescued, except there’s no picture of Lance. There’s fifteen other photos. Each photo has an age listed along with a price. The ones he doesn’t recognize have the word “sold” after the price. He quickly scrolls back up to the first page and counts the names…fifteen. There’s fifteen names and fifteen sold kids.

“Holy shit…guys, I got something!” Keith practically shouts, heart in his throat from the nerves and excitement that maybe just maybe they have another lead and are another step closer to taking the Galra down.

Hunk hums as he listens to Keith’s thoughts about the file. “But why would they keep the names of who they sold to?”

“I wouldn’t put it past the Galra to keep a list of potential witnesses. They probably kept their names as blackmail. If any tried to go to the cops…well, then they can put in an anonymous tip about a pedophile.” Coran says, laying a hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Look in the databases for those people. You find them, I’ll get the warrant, and well at least hopefully save some more people and put away a few creeps.”

Keith nods and hurries to put the first name into the system. Half hour later he has a list of fifteen addresses, finding most of them through the DMV. Now they just have to wait for Coran to get the warrant. There’s one more thing he wants to do though. He goes to the counseling room, knocks on the door and opens it. Lance is sitting between his mom and dad, head rested on his mom’s shoulder. Keith hates to interrupt them but he needs to. “Hey Lance.”

He lifts his head. “Yeah?”

“We found some photos, and I was wondering if you could take a look and tell me if you recognize any of them.”

Without protest Lance gets up and follows Keith to his desk. He sits in Keith’s chair, and Keith starts to scroll through the pictures. Lance watches the screen, shaking his head at some of the photos, but then he grabs Keith’s wrist. “That’s James!”

Keith looks more closely. The boy in the picture has shaggy brown hair, his face is a little dirty, but it’s his eyes that Keith is drawn to. There’s a fire in them, maybe anger, or resentment, but it reminds him a lot about how Lance looked when they found them. It’s the look of someone who’s grown up too fast. Of someone strong. Of someone who despises life with every fiber of their being, yet selfless enough to protect others.

“Did you find him?” Lance asks, eyes full of hope.

“We don’t know. We have a lead though. Are you sure you don’t recognize anyone else?”

Lance nods, “The warehouse wasn’t their only place. I was taken from Florida, but ended up all the way in Altea…which I don’t know where that even is.”

“That’s a good point.” Keith praises, then adds, “Altea is in New York.”

Lance shrugs a little and asks, “Can I go back to my family?”

“Yeah, of course. Just remember in a little bit Dr. Holt will be in to talk to you okay?”

Keith isn’t sure if Lance heard him for how fast he went back to the counseling room. He sat back down at his desk and stared at the picture of James. Something is turning in the pit of his stomach. If James was a teen when Lance was kidnaped, then the likely hood that he’s still alive is slim. He’d be in his late twenties or early thirties, and Keith can’t imagine some perv who bought a teen would keep him into adulthood. Then again, Lance was kept.

As Keith dives into the next file Pidge sent him, someone clears their throat. He lifts his head and sees Mr. McClain. “What can I do for you?” Keith asked.

“I was wondering when we could take our son home.”

Without thinking Keith snaps, “You can’t!”

“Uh, what he meant to say was; Lance is our primes witness in our case against the Galra. He needs to stay here until we catch them.” Shiro cuts in, getting up from his desk. “The others who were found with Lance are all minors and they and their families were put into witness protection until further notice. The Galra have people in some powerful positions, which makes this case all the more sensitive. We also know your son especially is highly recognized through the ranks of the gang.”

Mr. McClain runs a hand through his hair. “When can we be put into this witness protection with him? He’s all alone and that…that just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“I assure you sir, he is not alone. We actually don’t have him in the program because he’s been staying at mine and Keith’s home. Like you, we didn’t feel right about leaving him alone. He has his own room and we’ve been working on his recovery.”

“Is he safe with you two?”

“Probably safer than a new home and fake name. We’ve also spoken to Dr. Sam Holt who will be Lance’s therapist.”

Lance’s dad looks toward the counseling room and sighs, “There is no way I’m getting his mother to leave him again. Do you have any idea at all how long this will all take?”

“Months,” Shiro hesitates, “We’ve already been trying to get them for a year now. It could take another year, or more even.”

“Well, I guess I better try and get a transfer with my job.” Mr. McClain mumbles and walks away.

They’re about to get back to work but Lance shyly comes up to them. “I’m uh…hungry.”

Shiro grins at him. “I’m so glad you came and told us! That’s a huge step!”

Lance blushes a little, clearly embarrassed, “Where can I make something?”

Keith and Shiro share a look and Keith explains, “We don’t make food here. We have to buy it in the cafeteria or order take out.”

“Oh, I’ll uh…wait then.” Lance whispers.

They’re about to try to convince Lance to go and eat something, but the door bursts open and Dr. Holt greets them, “Good evening Voltron!”

“Hey dad!” Pidge says, not even lifting her eyes from the screen of her computer.

The older man adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder and crosses the room to Lance. He holds out his hand and says, “Hey there, I don’t recognize you so you much be Lance. I’m Dr. Holt.”

Lance awkwardly shakes Dr. Holts hand, not saying anything.

“Before we start, I need you to know that all of our meetings are confidential. If you feel comfortable enough, we can record them so Voltron can use anything you say in the case against the Galra. Please don’t feel obligated though, it’s completely up to you.”

Lance glances at Keith and Shiro before shrugging, “I…don’t know. Will it really help?”

“It might, but if you feel better not recording our sessions that is completely okay.” Sam reminds him.

“Can I change my mind?”

“Of course! These are for you! Anything you say or do is 100% your choice.”

Lance bites his lip before saying. “I don’t want to be recorded.”

“Okay. You should also know that I am obligated to alert the proper authorities if you plan to hurt yourself or anyone else. But we would talk about that together, I won’t make the call when you leave or anything. We will sit and make it together.”

Lance nods, and Dr. Holt leads the way to the counseling room. Lance’s family leaves, and Keith directs them to the two way mirror. “If Lance had agreed to being recorded we would have been able to turn the speaker on as well, to hear what they’re saying. But because he didn’t, we have to respect his privacy.”

They all gather around and watch as Sam takes out a brand new coloring book and crayons from his bag. Shiro is really glad he told him about Lance liking to color. Keith is gnawing on his fingernails, he knows Lance is probably debating on if it’s safe to use them or not. Both men let out a breath when Lance reaches forward and pulls the book and crayons toward himself. He carefully opens it to the first page, then opens the crayons, taking him time picking out a few colors.

“Why is he treating my brother like a child?” Marco, Lances older brother asks.

“He’s not. He’s just giving lance something he understands. Your brother is brave, strong, and smart, but you have to remember his education stopped when he was taken. His knowledge of the real world was skewed and manipulated. By letting Lance color it’s allowing him to have a slight distraction without overwhelming him with something he doesn’t understand yet.” Shiro crosses his arms and stares right at Lance. “He wants to learn, and I think if we help him and support him, it will give him something to strive for, something to help him leave the hell he was put through behind.

Marco deflates, “I didn’t think of any of that.”

“It’s okay, you’re just relieved he’s still alive. Having his family will help him more than you know.”

 

****

Since it’s Friday evening, Coran couldn’t find a judge willing to come back into work to get them their warrants. Since they can’t do anything productive until Monday, Allura told them all to take the weekend off because it’s bound to be a stressful week. The McClain’s had talked about getting a hotel until they could get arrangements made to move, but Coran wasn’t having any of that. “Nonsense! You folks can stay with me however long you’d like. I have plenty of room in my big empty house.” It took some convincing but they finally agreed.

They were about to leave with the older man when Lance asked Shiro, “Can you help me make spaghetti when we get to your house?”

Veronica looked confused for a minute, “Why would you need to help? Have they been making you do things around their house for them?” She glared at the two men, ready to pounce on them if they were using her little brother.

Without hesitation Lance explains, “I learned today to help cook, so I don’t feel like I have to give payment for my food.”

“Payment?”

Keith tries to stop the conversation but Lance has no embarrassment about sexual acts or talking about them for that matter. “Yeah. The Galra taught me that when food is given, payment is needed. Most of the time they’d tie me down anyway, but other times I’d use my hand or mouth, then we would get to eat.” He looks at Shiro and Keith and adds, “They don’t want payment, but I have a hard time taking food without giving it or just not eating to avoid it. So they said I should try and help make the food so I don’t feel like I owe them anything. I cooked lunch with Hunk today and it worked! I ate without feeling like I needed to pay them!”

Realization slowly crosses the McClain’s faces and Veronica stutters, “They made you…you had… _for food_!”

Lance shrugs, looking a little shy, “I-I know it’s not right. I’m trying to learn. I…Keith and Shiro are helping me figure out the wrong things I was taught. Shay, the nurse I met who’s really nice, she…she said everyone was going to help.

“Of course everyone will.” Lance’s mom flings herself at her son and squeezes the life out of him.

Once everyone got some more hugs in, Voltron dispersed to their own vehicles, the McClain’s getting in their rental car, and following Coran out of the underground garage. Lance settles in the front seat of Shiro and Keith’s car, this time Keith is driving. As they leave the agency Keith grips the wheel until his knuckles turn white. “So uh, Lance. I know the things that happened to you seem normal to you, but…it might be hard for some people to understand, and will likely make them sad.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that. So I just made my family sad?”

Shiro leans forward placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “You didn’t make them sad, what happened to you made them sad because they love you very much. I’m sure they will want to know what happened, and you’re free to share it with them, just maybe do it in a more…personal way.”

“Like how I talked to Dr. Holt.”

“Exactly like that.” Shiro leans back again, “How did your talk go with him anyway?”

“Weird, I guess.” Lance turns his head to look out the window. “I don’t…I don’t really want to talk about it.”

When the boys get home, Keith and Lance get ready to make spaghetti. Luckily they had everything they needed at home, but they will need to go grocery shopping over the weekend. Lance stares at the water, “Now?”

“No not now, “ Keith answers for the fifth time. “The water needs to boil before we put the pasta in.”

Lance huffs, “This isn’t nearly as fun as making lunch with Hunk was.”

“That’s because you picked something that doesn’t take a lot of work.” Shiro adds coming into the kitchen, hair still dripping from his shower. “While we wait, why don’t you tell us a story from when you were a kid?”

“I loved music! So much that my parents had bout me an electric guitar when I was seven! They got me lessons and everything. I went to them every Wednesday.” Lance tells them as he still stares at the water.

“Did your family still live in Cuba then?” Keith asks.

“Yeah. I loved Cuba. The beeches are so beautiful. The ones in Florida are okay, but nothing compares to Cuba’s.”

“Why were you in Florida when you got taken?” Shiro carefully prods.

Lance rubs the back of his neck and sighs, “My dad had an interview with some tech company. He got the job and was working when my Grandma and I went to the store. My siblings and mom were still at my grandparents house. I guess they still moved here.” The water in the pan starts to bubble and Lance shrieks, “Now?”

Keith laughs and hands him the pasta. “Yes now, but don’t forget to break them in half first.”

Lance grabs the handful of pasta in both hands and bends it, pasta flies everywhere and Lance looks horrified, but Shiro and Keith are laughing. “That’s okay.” Shiro says between chuckles, “Try again. This time twist it as you bend it and hold onto it tight.”

Lance grabs another handful and this time, more carefully twists and snaps the pasta in half and drops it into the boiling water. Keith hands him the pasta spoon and watches as Lance sirs it happily. Shiro sets a timer for eleven minutes. This way they know when to drain the pasta. Keith is surprisingly picky about his pasta and has figured out eleven minutes is the perfect amount of time for it to cook. He can’t help but to lean against the counter and watch Lance cook with Keith hovering, reminding him not to burn himself or to stir the sauce or the pasta. Shiro also can’t help the adoring smile that breaks out across his face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> There is some mild Smut in this chapter!

Saturday morning passed in a breeze. Lance helped make omelets, and ended up eating two. Right now the three of them just pulled up to the grocery store and Lance is nervously biting his nails. Shiro and Keith know this time not to let Lance wander alone, no matter how confident he seems. They don’t want a repeat of what happened at the mall. “Are you sure?” Lance asked for the hundredth time. He’s been making sure they’re okay with him coming along.

“We’re sure.” Keith said, “We’ll be next to you the entire time. This way you can pick out some things you like too.”

Taking a deep breath, Lance follows Shiro and Keith through the parking lot. When they get to the automatic doors he freezes. Shaking his head he tries not to panic. “I can’t do this. Last time…last time I—”

“Hey, it’s okay, calm down.” Shiro says, putting his hands on Lance’s shoulders and leaning down so he’s eye level with the blue eyed man. “You’re not a kid anymore okay? No one is going to take you. You’ll have us on either side of you, and we won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Promise?” Lance’s eyes are watery, but his tears remain unshed. He lifts a hand and holds out his pinky.

Shiro chuckles, linking his pinky with Lance’s and repeats, “Promise.”

Lance makes it’s through the doors, and Keith pushes a cart over to him. Lance grips onto the bar, and pushes it through the store while Shiro and Keith keep true to their word and stay as close as they can. Periodically Lance will reach across Keith or Shiro to grab something off the shelf. Everything is going pretty well, the fear slowly leaving Lance’s face, until they turn down the next aisle.

Keith groans, “Ugh…why does that jerk have to be here today?”

Shiro looks away from the sauces and sees the iconic long white hair of Lotor. The cities best defense attorney after his father of course. The tall man looks up from his list and catches Keith’s eye, he grins slyly and saunters up to them. “Hello gentlemen.”

His greeting catches Lance’s attention, and he gapes at Lotor. His hands slip from the cart and he backs up slowly. Shiro watches an odd look of recognition cross Lotor’s face, but he wipes it away quickly. He’s about to respond to Lotor when Lance grabs the crook of his and Keith’s arms. “Run…” he whimpers. “Please go…please, please, please! You h-have to go!” He’s yanking on their arms, continuing to plead with them to move.

Lotor cocks his head to the side and chuckles, “Your friend is a bit odd.” Keith glares at him, but Lance is insistent. He pulls with all his strength, nails digging into Shiro and Keith’s arms. “What’s your name?” Lotor asks, completely ignoring the fact that Lance is desperately trying to move Keith and Shiro.

“I’m sorry Lotor, but he’s upset right now, and I think it would be best if we moved on to the next item on our list.” Shiro says, critically watching Lotor, somethings not right here.

Shrugging the white haired man goes back to his cart, “I was just heading out anyway.” He smiles, looking right at Lance, “It was nice seeing you again.” He flips his eyes to Keith and Shiro at the last second. Then heads toward the check out.

Lance’s hold on the two men doesn’t lessen but he sniffles, “Can…can we go?”

Shiro and Keith share a look, and Keith nods. They can come back and get the rest of their list later. While they head to the check out, Shiro texts the rest of team Voltron to meet them at the agency. They need to talk to Lance and get it on record. If his assumptions are right…they may have a new lead.

With each beep of the scanner Lance flinches a little, continuously looking around them, eyes wide and filled with fear. To distract him, Keith grabbed his hand, “Did you want to pick out some candy? Or something?”

Lance’s eyes snap to Keith, and then to the shelf by the check out. He quit jumping with the beeps of the scanner, and as he tried to decide what to get, he would still glance over his shoulder. “Can I have that?” he asks, pointing to a king size bag of skittles.

Keith squeezes his hand and picks up two bags of the candy. He figured Lance may want some another time too. While he’s at it he adds a KitKat for himself and a bag of M&M’s for Shiro. Once they pay, they load their groceries into the car, and Keith opens the front passenger door for Lance. Then he hands him one of the bags of skittles.

After they get home, let Cosmo out, and unload their groceries, they get back into the car and head straight for the agency. They’re not surprised to see everyone’s vehicles already there, and when they get to the office, everyone and Lance’s family are there to greet them.

Lance brightens up when he sees his family, and shows them the bag of skittles he’s been slowly eating. “Keith let me pick something out at the store! I haven’t had these in so long!”

“Lance, we need to speak with you in the counseling room.” Shiro says, feeling like a jerk for pulling him away from his family.

Holding up the skittles, Lance asks, “Can I take these in there?”

“Yeah, of course.” Shiro smiles tightly. He’s not looking forward to this conversation, but if what he saw at the store means anything…they need to get more information out of Lance.

The others gather around the two-way mirror, turning the speaker on. Keith and Shiro follow Lance into the room, and Shiro turns the camera on to record everything they talk about. Lance sits on the floor at the table, dumping the rest of his skittles out on the table. Keith sits next to him and excepts a skittle that Lance hands him with a smile. Shiro joins them, and is also offered a Skittle. He takes it and chews the overly sugary candy.

When Lance starts to separate the colors of the candy into their own piles Keith starts, “Can you tell us what happened at the store today?”

“I was scared to go in, but Shiro made me feel safe with you two. I made it into the store, even picked out some stuff for myself…then…”

 “Then what, Lance?” Shiro prods.

He drops his hands from the table and picks at the skin around his fingernails, “Then I saw… _his_ son.”

Shiro looks up at the mirror, “Pidge, I need you to get the security tapes from the grocery store. It will show Lance’s reaction to the situation.”

“Why did seeing his son cause you distress?” Keith asked.

“Because I was afraid he was going to take you and Shiro.”

Shiro frowns, “You weren’t worried about yourself?”

Lance shakes his head, “No. I’ve been beaten and used by Lotor and his father before. Along with most of their generals, some of their dealers, and anyone else they wanted to manipulate before killing.”

Keith gets up, grabs a coloring book and markers. He sets it on the table and asks, “Is Lotor apart of the Galra?”

Lance gathers his skittles, moving them aside and pulls the coloring book toward himself. “Not just apart of it. He’s going to take over some day.”

Feeling hopeful Shiro keeps pushing, “Do you know the names of anyone else in the Galra.”

“Haggar…or at least that’s what the others call her, I don’t think that’s her real name. She, well she was kind of like a doctor. She would make sure any of our wounds weren’t life threatening, but most of the time if they were…well that person never came back. Then there’s Sendak he’s…a monster. He does most of the killing for them. He was always really rough too. Taking what he wanted whenever he wanted it. I’ve heard him talking once, that he was going to find a way to take over because Lotor and Zarkon are—” Lance covers his mouth and his eyes widen. “Forget I said his name! Please! You….he’ll kill me and you and, and—”

“Lance, it’s okay, calm down. Remember the promise I made you? Keith and I will keep you safe, always.”

Lance gulped, “Z-Zarkon…he…he always gets his way. He’s unstoppable.”

“Not anymore, thanks to your bravery.” Keith said, sitting back down next to Lance. “Because you survived for so long, and are willing to help us, we can make sure that they never hurt anyone again.”

Shiro shuts off the camera and breathes, “We got them…there’s no way they won’t get put away now. Come on, lets go.”

Lance gets up, picking up the rest of his skittles and shoving them into his mouth. When they exit the room, they find Pidge at her desk. Shiro heads over to her, and watches the store footage over her shoulder. He watches as Lance’s attention turns to Lotor and how he starts to panic pulling at Keith and Shiro. “Make sure you get that saved and put into evidence immediately.” Allura commands. “We can’t get any of this taken from us. We have to make sure we follow protocol.”

“Already done.” Pidge said with a few taps of the keys of her computer. “Lets get out of here now though. My mom will kill me if I miss another family dinner.”

“Speaking of dinner, we were going to see if the McClain’s would like to join us.” Shiro smirks at the sheer joy that crosses Lance’s face.

“Really? They can come over?” Lance grips onto his sister.

“Yeah really. We just have to pick up some things we missed at the store.” Lance’s smile falls and Shiro adds, “No worries, we’ll go to a different one this time, okay?” he pauses, “Coran has our address, I’ll text him when we’re home.”

Lance lets go of his sister slowly, and Mr. McClain pulls a card out of his pocket. “Here, my cell number is on there too, that way you can contact us directly.”

****

This time they stopped at a Target. That way it isn’t directly a grocery store, so hopefully Lance handles the trip a little better. When they go in they start on the opposite end of the store, away from the groceries, to give Lance time to adjust. As they walk through the store Lance stops at a display of stuffed animals. He doesn’t even look at all the options before he’s snatching a blue lion off the shelf. He runs his hand over the soft material of it’s fur and Keith raises an eyebrow at Shiro, without even speaking they agree they’re getting that for him. Lance is about to set it down, but Shiro grabs his arm, “You can get that.”

Lance debates for a moment and holds tight to the lion, he’s about to walk away, but stops again. He pulls out a red one, handing it to Keith, and a black and white one is handed to Shiro. He smiles satisfied and starts to walk through the store again. Not wanting to burst his bubble, they keep the lions.

They successfully make their way to the groceries, Lance slightly swinging a basket they had picked up at the door. It takes them no time to get the rest of their list, and check out. When they get home, Shiro texts Lance’s father and gives him their address. Lance and Keith hit the kitchen, and Lance sets his lion on the counter. “That way she can watch us.” He had explained when Keith questioned him.

Keith managed to convince Lance to split the cooking up, so he didn’t have to try and fry the salmon while peeling potatoes and steaming vegetables.  Keith shows Lance how to get the veggies ready, and he gets to work on the potatoes. Once they’re peeled, he starts to chop them, and directs Lance to start to Salmon. When the doorbell rings Lance almost jumps out of his skin, but Keith is able to calm him quickly. They hear Shiro greeting Lance’s family, asking if they’d like anything to drink.

When dinner is ready they all gather around the dining room table, and with all else considered it turns out to be a pretty normal evening. Lance’s siblings tell stories from when Lance was little, and Shiro and Keith love the way he blushes and laughs with them. Lance’s mood stays high after his family leaves, so the three of them get comfortable on the couch, Lance in the middle, because Shiro didn’t want him to feel awkward or left out with him and Keith cuddling. They let Lance pick out a movie, and he picked the Avengers, his reasoning is that he loves superheroes.

Halfway through the movie Lance falls asleep, his head falling on the back of the couch. Shiro picks him up, grabs his blue lion, and brings him to bed. Once he has Lance tucked in, he heads to his and Keith’s room, only to find Keith completely naked, two fingers pumping in and out of himself.

Shiro stops dead in his tracks and just watches. Keith smirks, “It’s been too long Takashi….I had to start with _one_ finger.”

Groaning, Shiro strips his clothes off and crawls onto the bed with Keith. He flips his boyfriend onto his back, grabs the lube that’s sitting on the bed, and coats his fingers. He slips two in, knowing Keith likes a little stretch, and marvels in the way his love arches his back, eyes half open. Feeling what Keith had said about it being too long, he preps Keith as fast, but as thoroughly as he can. Then he slicks up his cock and slowly inches himself into Keith.

Keith runs his nails down Shiro’s back, a long drawn out moan leaving his lips as he feels so incredibly full. Once he’s adjusted he begs, “Takashi, move, please, I need you.”

Not wanting to keep his lover waiting, Shiro starts to thrust, slow at first, but his pace increases until Keith is a moaning mess under him. “Fuck, Keith. I hadn’t realized how much I’ve missed this…missed you.”

Keith looks up at him, his pupils blown wide, “I love you…now fuck me like you mean it.”

Shiro breathes out a chuckle, “I love you too.” Then he snaps his hips hard and fast, meeting Keith every time. He smashes his lips against Keith’s and their kiss is sloppy, full of teeth clinking, and probably far too much tongue, but they wouldn’t have it any other way right now.

They’re so absorbed with each other that they don’t hear the gentle knock on their door, definitely don’t hear the quiet creek of it opening, or the horrified gasp of a blue-eyed man.

Just as Keith is about to cum, Shiro is ripped away from him. He’s about to curse his boyfriend for being a god damn tease, but stops when he sees Lance punching any part of Shiro he can get his fists. Keith gapes, too shocked to move, and Shiro manages to grab Lance’s wrist. “Lance, stop! Please!” Keith finally speaks up. “This isn’t what it looks like! Shiro wasn’t hurting me!”

“I used to tell myself that all the time, tried to convince myself it wasn’t real, that the pain was just all in my head.” He fights to get his hands loose, but Shiro is too strong. “You-you’re one of them aren’t you?”

“No, Lance, I’m not. I swear. Please, just let us try to explain.” Shiro pleads.

“No! It’s just lies!” He yanks his hands free, grabs Keith’s hand and pulls him out of the bed. He picks up Keith’s phone and he barrels across the room, with a very naked, and very worried Keith being dragged behind him. They get to Lance’s room, and he shuts the door, shoving the dresser in front of it. Keith picks up a pair of shorts Lance had laying on the floor and slips them on.

“Lance please, Shiro isn’t one of them. I promise you.”

“Just like you promised to keep me safe? How safe can I be in a house with…with…with a rapist!” He shoves Keith’s phone into his hand, “Call Hunk, we need Shay. She needs to take pictures of you. Like she did me.”

“Lance…I don’t—”

“Just do it, maybe he’ll listen to her.” Shiro’s muffled voice comes from the hall way. “Lance…I’m sorry. I-I didn’t want to ever hurt you, and I…I wasn’t thinking of how this would affect you. I just…I’m so sorry.”

Lance grabs Keith again and they move to the far side of the room. Keith hits the call button by Hunk’s name and after three rings he answers. “Hunk…I need you and Shay to come over here….yes right now…I’ll explain when you get here.”

It takes an agonizing half an hour for Hunk and Shay to arrive. When they do, a distraught Shiro opens the door. He explains what happened and finished with, “I’m such an idiot…I-we should have known better.”

Hunk goes to the kitchen, deciding to make some kind of dessert, cooking is what he does to calm himself. While Shay heads upstairs. She knocks on Lance’s door, “Lance, it’s me Shay.”

Lance shoves the dresser out of the way and opens the door. “Shay! You need to make sure Keith is okay! Where’s your camera? You need it for evidence!”

“Lance, can we sit and talk for a moment please.” Shay gestures towards his bed.

Confused, Lance moves to the bed, but not before grabbing Keith’s hand and making him join them.

“So Lance, I need you to listen to me without interrupting okay.” Lance nods, holding onto Keith’s hand tightly, and Shay continues. “What you saw Keith and Shiro doing…is much different than what happened to you.” He opens his mouth to protest but Shay holds her hand up stopping him. “Yes the way they were having sex is the same way you were raped, anally. But sweetie, not all sex is rape. When people care deeply about someone they normally connect on a more intimate and personal level through sex. Shiro would not have done what he did without Keith’s one hundred percent consent. Do you know what consent means?” Lance shakes his head. “It means that Keith wanted Shiro to do that. That he agreed to it. Sex, done right, with consent, doesn’t hurt. Its actually an incredible feeling to be so connected with another soul. I know all you’ve ever witnessed and seen has been abusive and wrong, but sex is a normal thing done between consenting adults.”

Lance looks at Keith and asks, “Did you…consent…to Shiro putting…putting his thin—”

“Yes,” Keith interrupts. “Yes, I wanted him to Lance. I’m sure it doesn’t make any sense, but I swear he wasn’t hurting me okay. I love him and he loves me, he would never hurt me or anyone else in that way. I know you know that he isn’t really a part of the Galra. You can’t tell me when you look at him and interact with him that you see anything evil.”

Lance bows his head, “I’m sorry.”

Keith runs his hand down Lance’s back, letting it rest on his lower back, “You have nothing to be sorry for. Shiro and I should be the sorry ones. We should have realized what would happen if you woke up and saw us. I’m so sorry I worried you and scared you.”

Lance leans into Keith and there’s a gentle knock on the frame of Lance’s door. He looks up and sees Shiro standing there, eyes bloodshot, and a look that’s far too defeated across his face. “I’m sorry to barge in, but Hunk is making some cookies, I uh, thought maybe you might want to help, so you can eat them.”

Lance pushes himself up from the bed, heads straight to Shiro, wraps his arms around his waist, and tucks his head under the larger mans chin. “I’m sorry Shiro. You have been nothing but good to me and I-I was just…scared I guess.”

Shiro hugs him back, resting his cheek on the top of Lance’s head, “It’s not your fault. I’m sorry too.”

“Don’t be sorry.”

Shiro hugs him tighter, lifting his head so his eyes can meet Shay’s and his mouths, “Thank you.”


	7. Chapter 7

After they had cookies with Hunk and Shay, the couple had left and the trio had returned to bed. This time he had asked only Keith to stay with him until he fell asleep, and Shiro, while hurt, understood. After Keith had come to bed, Shiro just held him tight, whispering promises of never hurting him until the two fell asleep. A couple hours later Lance’s screams woke them. When they were about to go wake him from his nightmares, the screams stopped, and a soft knock sounded at their door. Shiro had gotten up to open it, and found Lance, shoulders hunched, tears streaming down his face, clutching to his lion. Shiro led him into his and Keith’s room, and Lance crawled into their bed without hesitation, getting under the covers right in the middle.

Keith had looked like he might explode for how red his face had gotten when Lance scooted close to him and put his head on his chest, curling up tight against him with his blue lion squeezed between them. Shiro chuckled under his breath and crawled into bed next to Lance. He kept his distance until Lance so innocently asked why he was lying on the edge of the bed. Then he held up his lion and said, “Blue doesn’t bite,” and when Shiro scooted over Lance lifted one of her paws and rawred at him, making both Keith and Shiro burst into laughter.

While they laid there in the quiet, gently tangled among each other Lance had spoken up, “I’m sorry if I’m being weird…with being in your bed, and snuggling…it’s just…it’s been a long time since anyone has touched me in a kind way. When I was a kid, if I got scared or whatever I’d crawl into my brother’s bed. My family was always snuggling and hugging too, and it’s just…it’s nice to feel it again.”

Shiro had ran his hand along Lance’s forearm, “It’s not weird. You’ve been touch starved.”

Soon after that the trio had fallen asleep, only to wake up in a pile of limbs, Shiro’s arm was asleep, Keith had a kink in his neck, and Lance had a knot in his shoulder. They take turns showering and getting ready for the day, and just as they sit down for a boring breakfast of cereal, the doorbell rings.

Confused, Keith gets up, and just as he rounds the corner to head for the door, bullets pierce through the door and he dives back into the dining room. “Shit!” He curses crawling under the table where Shiro and Lance have already dropped off their chairs too. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know but we need to move, stay low and get up the stairs, quickly.” Shiro commands nudging Lance to go first. The gun shots momentarily stop and they hurry up the stairs. Shiro sprints down toward the end of the hall, grabs the string to the attic door and pulls it down. The ladder lowers and they hear the front door being broken in. “Who the hell attacks FBI agents in the middle of the day!” Shiro hisses, while Lance hurries up the ladder. “Keith go!”

Keith doesn’t hesitate, and bounds up the ladder after Lance, Shiro starts after him just as the front door gives away. Multiple voices carry up to them through the house, and as feet pound on the stairs Shiro pulls the attic closed. Keith takes out his phone and sends a group message to all of Voltron.

The noise of destruction throughout the house makes Lance ball up and cover his ears.

Shiro looks for anything they can use as a weapon and in the cramped crawl space he finds a two by four. He sends a look over his shoulder at Keith that he hopes his lover reads as, “Keep Lance safe.”

“There’s no one here!” Someone shouts from the direction of Lance’s room.

“Yes they are! There is food on the table. Have you checked everywhere?” another voice sounds right below them. Shiro can imagine him pointing to the attic.

Just as the door begins to pull open Shiro kicks it down with enough force to knock out one of the attackers with the ladder. Then he jumps down when another starts to climb, taking the intruder with him. He uses the two by four to knock out the man, or uh, large, very muscular woman who had pulled down the attic door. He cringed, he’s never been a fan of hitting a woman, but there’s not much he could do about it.

Shiro let’s his guard down, and a gun fires behind him. He moves to try and get out of the way, only for the bullet to go straight though his arm, just above the elbow. His arm falls limp at his side, and he uses his other one to grip onto the wound. He loses his footing, collapsing against the wall, and as the pain overtakes him he watches as a man with a nasty snarl, and a scar sticking out around the red metal eyepatch covering one of his eyes. “Where is the boy?”

“I’m the only one here…he-he ran out the back door.” Shiro grit through his teeth, blood seeping through his fingers., his back sliding down the wall until he’s sitting on the ground.

“Hmm, I would believe that if I didn’t have this place surrounded.” He raises his gun and presses it to Shiro’s forehead. “Now, I’ll ask one last time, and if you tell me the truth, I _might_ spare your life.”

“Screw…you!” Shiro growls at him and closes his eyes, waiting for the man to pull his trigger.

“NO!” Lance screams. “I’m here! Please! Just leave him alone!”

The gun moves away from Shiro’s head, and instead points at Lance. Just as the man was about to pull the trigger, Keith drops down from the attic, shoving the gun man’s arm up, causing the gun to go off and the bullet to hit the ceiling. Lance shrieked covering his head and dropping to the floor. He’s seen too many gun fights, too much death, but at least those were people he didn’t know…didn’t care about. A bloody hand wraps around Lance’s forearm, and he looks up at Shiro, letting the injured man guide him to his side, where he laid a protective arm around Lance. Lance buried his face against Shiro, and Shiro held his hand against the back of Lance’s head.

Keith fought against the intruder, who is twice his size, like he was at no disadvantage at all. He managed to get the gun away, sending is sliding down the hallway. Keith has the upper hand, until he’s back into the wall, and the one eyed man grabs him around the throat, lifting him off the ground. As Keith starts to lose consciousness, the man suddenly convulses and passes out. Keith lands on his feet, rubbing his neck and croaks, “Thanks Pidge.”

“The others got the ones surrounding the house. Lets get them to the agency.” Pidge says as she cuffs the man on the floor.

“I…I think I need…to go to a hospital…first.”

Lance is now leaning over Shiro, trying to wrap his hands around the massive wound in his arm. Those were no ordinary bullets. It’s like it shredded through his arm like a shot gun bullet, but came from something like a nine millimeter. Keith rushes over and helps Lance by pulling his shirt off and wrapping it tightly around Shiro’s arm, but all too quickly his blood starts seeping through the layers.

“Get him to my SUV. I was at the agency when you sent out the s.o.s. I’ll be able to flash lights and sound sirens the whole way so we can get there faster.” Pidge explains, while Lance and Keith help Shiro stand. When they get outside, the others are gathering their new suspects. “There’s more inside. We gotta go though.” No one questions them as they get into Pidge’s vehicle.

Lance slides in the back first, helping Keith get Shiro in next. Shiro slumps against Lance, who tries to soothe him with trembling, bloody, hands. Keith hold pressure on his wound, and as they speed down the highway, Pidge is on the phone relaying Shiro’s injury to the hospital so they’re prepared.

When they get there, everything is a rush. Nurses and a doctor are waiting outside with a gurney. Once Shiro is on it, Keith, Lance and Pidge hurry after them only to get a nurse to stop them and tell them they need to wait in the waiting room.

After a few hours, Keith stares to pace. Lance sits in the far chair with his head in his hands, and Pidge leaves, promising to return with the others once they had all the suspects booked.

Keith stops dead in his tracks when Lance chokes, “It was Sendak. He does all the clean up…he was coming to kill me. They knew I was with you…because of Lotor. This-this is all my fault.” Lance pushes himself up off the chair and grabs Keith’s shoulders. “Why did you guys have to find me? Why-why did you _keep_ me? Everyone would be better off if I was _dead_!”

Grabbing Lance’s face Keith makes the tan-skinned man look at him. “Don’t ever say that! Shiro and I took you in to protect you! We took you in because there’s just…just something about you okay? Maybe it’s your strength, or-or the way you try to protect those around you! Hell it might just be the ferocity in your eyes that drew us to you. Shiro and I enjoy watching you grow, and learn, and become the man you were meant to become. It’s only been a fucking _week_ , since we found you, but damnit Lance, you’ve—”

“Stop…” Lance cries, “You don’t mean it. You _can’t_ mean it. I’m broken. Too broken and used.”

Before Keith can respond the doctor comes into the waiting room, “Agent Kogane?” Keith turns to him, “It was touch and go for a while. He’s in recovery now, but…unfortunately there was too much damage done to his arm, we had no choice but to amputate it.”

Keith starts to tear up and asks, “Can we see him?

“Of course. He’ll still be in and out of consciousness while the anesthetic leaves his system.”

With hurried steps, Lance and Keith follow the doctor to the Intensive Care Unit. When they enter Shiro’s room, they sit quietly while he sleep. Keith is on his left, holding his hand carefully, mindful of his IV. Shiro groans as his eyes flutter open, and he squeezes Keith’s hand. Keith’s eyes snap up to his and he shoots out of the chair. “Takashi…” He whispers, gently pressing his lips to Shiro’s.

When they part Shiro asks, “Lance?”

“He’s okay,” Keith gestures across the bed to where Lance is sitting.

Shiro turns his head and smiles at Lance, “Hey…you okay?”

“I’m fine, Shiro. It’s you that should be asked that.”

He shrugs, “I’m fii—” his eyes fall to the bandage around his bicep, the only issue is the rest of his arm is missing. “Keith…Keith what happened? Where’s-my-Keith!”

“Takashi, calm down, okay, please just stay calm. There was too much damage, they couldn’t…I’m sorry.” Keith rushes out, running his hand though Shiro’s hair.

Shiro takes a few shaky breaths and sighs, “It’s-it’s okay, as long as Lance and you are okay.”

Lance brings his legs up and curls up on himself. “I’m so sorry.”

“Lance…come here.” Shiro said, pulling Keith down onto the bed on his left. Lance hesitantly uncurls himself and sits on the edge of the bed. “Come on, scoot closer.” Lance does as he’s told, until he’s right up against Shiro’s side, mindful of his arm. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I get shot at all the time. This time I just wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way. It’s apart of the job. The important thing is I’m alive.”

“That’s right.” Allura said from the door, tossing Keith a shirt, since his was used as a . “I hope you don’t mind that we all came to see you.”

Shiro shakes his head and team Voltron crams into the small room. “I told Matt what was going on, once Keith had filled us in. He’s already working on a tech savvy prosthetic.” Pidge said, patting one of Shiro’s feet.

“Thank you.” He looks toward Allura, “Guess I’m on desk duty for a while…huh?”

“Unfortunately yes.” She said, smiling sadly. “You just focus on recovery, Matt will worry about a new arm, and the rest of us will do the dirty work.”

*****

Both men stayed with Shiro overnight, unwilling to leave the injured man alone. Keith had slept on the hospital bed with Shiro, and Lance slept uncomfortably in a chair. When Keith had to leave in the morning to get ready for work, Lance wouldn’t go. He couldn’t go. Shiro risked his life for him, the least he could do was keep him company. Keith stopped back before he went into the agency, bringing Lance some breakfast, begging him to just eat it and not worry about payment. He also brought some of Lance’s books, that way when Shiro was resting he didn’t get too bored. The last thing Keith did before Kissing Shiro goodbye, was show Lance how to use Shiro’s phone to call if he needed absolutely anything at all.

Shiro fell asleep soon after Keith left, the pain meds making him drowsy. Lance had picked one of his books up, the first one Keith had read to him, and started to read. He loved how the brave knight saved the princess. How he slayed the dragon, and freed her from her prison. “Lance…what’s wrong?” Shiro’s tired voice asks. “Why are you crying?”

He hadn’t realized he was, and quickly wipes the tears away. “I guess…I just wish my life was like this fairy tale. I wish—” He huffs, running a hand through his hair, “—never mind. It’s not important…it’s stupid and silly actually.”

“I doubt that,” Shiro counters, pushing the button to raise his bed into a sitting position. “You know you can talk to me right? Nothing you could say would be stupid.”

Shutting his book, Lance gets up and sits on the edge of the bed. “When I was a kid…I dreamt of going to space. I loved the stars, and just everything about the universe. Then…well, all my dreams got ripped away from me.” He turns to a page in the book, “Sort of like how hers was when she was locked away wit the dragon.” Flipping the page again he lands on the one where the knight saves the princess, “Then he came along…saved her…changed her dreams. Kind of…well, like how you and Keith did for me. When the Galra had me…all I dreamt of was seeing the next day, that maybe I wouldn’t anger them too much and end up dead. I know I was close…food was coming in smaller portions. They knew I was letting the younger ones eat. Which upset them. So it was their way of punishing me more. I hadn’t had water for days before you guys came. I hadn’t eaten either. I could feel my body giving out on me, but I held onto a dream that I’d see the next day. I had no idea I could dream of being saved…that thought stopped running through my head long ago.”

“You said her dreams had changed, just like yours…how have yours changed?” Shiro prods.

Lance snorts shaking his head, “It’s an impossible dream, so it would be better for me to let it go now.”

Shiro reaches forward with his left hand, and turns Lance’s face so he can look him in the eyes, “Tell me. Please.”

Surprisingly Lance leans into Shiro’s hand and whispers, “It’s to have a happily ever after.” He leans away, separating his face from Shiro’s hand, “But I know I’ll never be… _okay_. Dr. Holt told me that no matter the progress we make. I will still struggle to fit into the real world. I’ll still have nightmares, just maybe less often. Still be…broken.”

“Did he say the word broken?”

“He didn’t have to.” Lance closes his eyes for a second, then hops off the bed, “Can I read to you?”

Shiro watches Lance sadly as the blue-eyed man digs through the pile of books Keith brought. He pulled out a surprisingly big on, and Shiro recognizes it as Harry Potter.

This time, Lance rounds the bed and sits on Shiro’s left, and squeezes up next to him, which causes Shiro to put his arm around him so they can sit more comfortably. Lance opens the book and takes a breath, “I started reading these before I got taken…but I always had trouble with some of the bigger words and such. Will you help me?”

“Of course.”

With a small smile Lance begins, “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people---”

*****

When Keith stopped by the hospital on his lunch break, he smiled and shook his head. Shiro and Lance were curled up on the bed together, Lance’s head had fallen onto Shiro’s shoulder, and Shiro had his head resting on top of Lance’s. In Lance’s limp hand was the first Harry Potter book, and Keith really didn’t want to disturb them. The moment in front of him is so innocent and cute that he couldn’t help taking out his phone and snapping a quick picture. Then he slowly left, careful not to slam the door on his way out. He could fill them in later.

*****

The next time the two at the hospital woke was when a nurse came to check Shiro’s vitals. Lance had hastily gotten off the bed, and the tips of his ears turned red he was blushing so hard. _Cute_ …Shiro thought. After she had left Shiro had groaned a little while trying to get comfortable again.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked, worry seeping through his tone.

“I’m just stiff. Want to go for a walk?” Shiro asked. “We could go to the cafeteria and see if they have anything remotely edible.”

Lance rubbed his arm, and nodded, “Sure, but uh…stay close okay? They’ll know you’re here…they could be anywhere.”

“How? Sendak was taken down before he could contact anyone.”

Lance helped Shiro stand, making sure the wires of his IV weren’t twisted as they changed them over to the mobile IV stand. “Their generals wear wires. That way if something goes down that wasn’t supposed to…they’ll know. He was in the house still when you said you were coming here. I-I know they’re after me, but…you, Keith, and the rest of Voltron…know too much now. They’ll be after all of you, and probably my family too.”

“It will be okay. The others are getting warrens today. I bet Lotor and Zarkon are already in custody and being questioned.” Shiro tries to reassure Lance, while he also tried to make sure his hospital gown is covering everything. Sure he has his briefs off but he doesn’t want everyone looking at them.

Lance sees his struggle and moves behind Shiro, trying his gown tighter and making sure it’s laying in a way that keeps him covered. “I’m sorry…I just…you don’t know what they’re capable of.”

“I have an idea…we’ve been after them for some time now.” Shiro reminds Lance.

“Right, uh, so how about that walk?” Lance asks, opening the door for Shiro.

A few nurses give them a questioning look, but when they notice Shiro still hooked up to his meds, they seem to relax. They take an elevator to the first level, and head for the cafeteria. Luckily Shiro knows Lance has some cash from Keith in his pocket, he watched Keith struggle to get him to take it this morning. When they get to the counter Lance looks around curiously, and his eyes sparkle as he looks at a double chocolate brownie. Shiro chuckles, telling Lance to pick it up. He does so hesitantly, and Shiro points out a piece of cheesecake and Lance also grabs that.

They move on to pay and Lance pulls the money out of his pocket. The total is four dollars and some change. Lance starts to shake a little as he looks through the money. He _knows_ how to count… _knows_ which bills are what, but at this very moment he can’t seem to figure it out. Maybe it’s the pressure of the line building behind them, or maybe it’s because it’s been so long since he’s dealt with money, but all he knows right now is he looks helplessly stupid.

Shiro gently places his left hand on Lance’s back and whispers, “You just need the five dollar bill.”

Lance lets out an audible breath and hands the cashier the five dollar bill. The women gives them their change, and Lance shoves the money back into his pocket. Shiro makes sure to grab a couple plastic forks, and they silently make their way back to his room. When they get there, Lance sits down, and stares at his brownie. “I can’t eat this…”

“Why not?” Shiro asks, who has already taken two bites of his cheesecake.

“B-because Keith gave me the money for it…I-I know you guys don’t…ya know, want anything from me, but…but I can’t. I already ate the food he gave me earlier, and I just—” A tear slides down Lance’s face, “I can’t.”

“Hey…it’s okay. What do you need from us in order to eat it?” Shiro asks, an idea floating in his head.

“Tell me to do something for Keith…and make him accept it… _anything_ , I _need_ to give payment. I can’t really explain it, but I feel like if I don’t my head might explode.” Lance explains, starting to hyperventilate.

“Okay…you can eat that, and when Keith gets here…give him the biggest, tightest, most comforting hug you can muster. He’s going to need it.” Shiro says, watching as Lance’s eyes snap to his.

“A… _hug_? Really? That’s it?”

“That’s it. I know Keith will really appreciate it.”

Lance sits and thinks for a moment, before unwrapping his brownie and taking a large bite out of it. “This is really good!” He mumbles around his bite. “Thank you…for I guess helping me…if you consider trying to get my brain to stop being so—”

“It’s okay, really. You’ll get past this…I promise.” Shiro says, finishing off his cheesecake.

“Well, thanks anyway.”

*****

Keith quietly pushes the door to Shiro’s hospital room open, trying to be quiet in case Shiro is sleeping again. He shifts the Chinese take-out bag to his other arm, trying not to spill the food. He’s grateful that Allura let him leave a little early. He had spent the afternoon checking out the list of suspects and kids they had found, and it’s just been a long day.

When he hears Lance reading out loud, he lets the door fall shut on it’s own, knowing that they’re awake. Once the door clicks shut, the two look over at Keith and he raises the bag, “I brought dinner!”

He sets it down at the foot of Shiro’s bed, and before he can do anything else, Lance is suddenly wrapped around him, hugging him in a way that…well in a way that no one but Shiro does. It’s strong, but tender, and it’s oh so warm. Keith slowly raises his arms and returns the gesture, and Lance relaxes even more into the hug. “What did I do to deserve this?”

Lance just squeezes him tighter, and Keith can’t say that he doesn’t like it. Shiro smirks at him and says, “Lance was having a particularly hard time eating something you had given him money for. So I figured a hug would be sufficient payment.”

Keith holds Lance a little tighter, a little closer. “Thank you, Lance, but I really didn’t need anything.”

“I know…” he whispers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> I am so so so sorry about the wait for this chapter. life has been stupid busy, and both my toddler and I have been sick.

Keith’s week has been hell, to put it lightly. Shiro has been in recovery, still not ready to come home. His house was a crime scene that he was just now able to get into a couple days ago to start the clean up. He should be able to finish it tonight. All that’s left is to scrub away the blood…Shiro’s blood. Then to top off the week, he’s been getting pervert after pervert with the warrants Coran got him. None of them will give up the Galra, and so far, none of them still have the victims. Some have given up who they sold them too, and others gave up…where they’re buried. The hardest one for Keith was James. A part of him had hoped that somehow the boy had survived. That they would have another witness, that Lance would look at him like…like a hero. He knows that’s selfish, and stupid, considering he really shouldn’t care what Lance thinks of him. He’s just a witness, just a young man who has been through a real life nightmare. Yet, something in him is attached. Something in him wants to see Lance smile, see Lance heal, see Lance _happy_.

After another long disappointing day at work, Keith had dinner with Lance and Shiro at the hospital. Lance has been spending most of his time there, keeping Shiro company. His family even shows up every now and then because no one can convince Lance to leave during the day, and they all know he blames himself for Shiro getting shot and losing his arm. Each night though, Lance comes home with Keith. Tonight when they leave Lance surprises everyone and initiates a hug with Shiro, and Keith had to fight back how adorable he thought it was when Lance timidly asked if he could hug the larger man.

The drive home was silent as it has been all week. Keith’s never been good at small talk, or any kind of talking really. Lance headed straight for his room when they arrived, and Keith sat in the living room. No T.V. or lights on. He knew he needed to clean, but he wanted to wait, to make sure Lance was sleeping before he started.

Cosmo jumped onto the couch and laid his head on Keith’s Lap. Keith ran his fingers through his soft fur and hummed, “Sorry boy, I know you’ve been a bit neglected this week. When Shiro comes home, hopefully soon, he’ll have time to give you all the loving you need. Maybe tomorrow Lance and I can take you for a walk before we head to the hospital for the day.” Keith scratches behind Cosmo’s ear and is eternally thankful that nothing happened to him when they were ambushed.

He leans his head back and closes his eyes, knowing full well he won’t sleep. He hasn’t since the attack, but he just needs to rest for a moment. He’s startled when Cosmo jumps down. He searches the dark for what spooked her, when he sees movement by the stairs. Without thinking he pulls out his gun and aims, “Stop right there! You bastards have tried taking everything from me, I won’t let you do anymore damage.”

“Keith?” Lance whispers, slowly reaching over to flick the light on.

Keith blinks rapidly trying to adjust his gaze, and when he sees Lance he quickly lowers his gun. “Lance! I’m so sorry! I thought—”

“No, it’s okay. Don’t apologize. Besides I’ve had two guns pressed on either of my temples at the same time before. It doesn’t really bother me. Plus, with what you said, I knew you didn’t know it was me.”

“Still, I’m sorry. I’m a little jumpy.”

Lance crosses his arms and looks down at his feet, “Not sleeping can do that to someone.”

Keith moves around the couch, and asks, “How do you know I haven’t been sleeping?”

“It’s obvious.” Lance pauses and crosses his arms, “I was uh…wondering if you could sit with me while I try to sleep. I’m having…a hard day I guess.”

Keith lets out a breath, he’s such a selfish jerk. He’s been so concerned about himself and how he’s dealing with things that he hasn’t even asked Lance if he’s okay, or if he needs anything. “Yeah, of course.”

He follows Lance up the stairs, flicking the light off again. Cosmo sneaks by them and beats them to the top. It’s pretty usual for Cosmo to sleep in Lance’s room. So it’s not surprising when the dog makes his way straight there and lays on the floor at the foot of Lance’s bed. Lance already changed into some pajamas, which are just a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

Keith stops at the door and realizes, “I’m going to go get my sleep clothes on, and put my gun away. I’ll be right back.”

Lance gets comfortable in bed, holding Blue close to his chest. He can’t help but wonder what his place is here. Why they insist on keeping him here instead of in witness protection. How come they are so kind to him. Mostly, why they care about someone as damaged and broken as he is. He can’t even eat a meal without freaking out, or sleep alone because the nightmares put him back in the basement of the warehouse. He’s twenty-two…he’s an adult, yet he can’t read that well, has barely any schooling, where is he even supposed to go from here? How is he supposed to handle the trials and testimonies, therapy, and questioning? How many times will he have to relive the horrifying things that happened to him? How long until he learns that the things the Galra trained him to do is all…wrong? How in the world is he supposed to live a normal life when for fourteen years he was a slave to the strongest evil he’s ever known in this world?

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Keith startles Lance as he comes back into his room with a pair of black shorts and a red sleeveless shirt. He makes himself comfortable on Lance’s bed, sitting above the covers with his back against the head board.

Lance has his back to Keith, shrugs, and pulls his blanket closer to his chin, covering Blue. “I feel…lost. Out of place. Like…I never got to really be a kid. I still feel like one sometimes, because I feel so stupid. Some of the things you and your friends talk about…I just can’t even pretend to understand. It’s like when you’re a kid and your parents are talking about parent things like bills and whatever. You don’t understand it, they know you don’t, but continue to talk about it even though you can see their emotions and expressions.” He sighs, rolling over onto his back, and turning his face just enough to look at Keith. “What am I supposed to do? I started life in a family full of love and worshiping the ground my siblings walked on. My heart warming every time my parents would interact; their love is incredible. I know it’s silly, especially for a boy I guess, but I used to dream of finding love like that someday. But now…now that’s just a fairy tale. There’s no way. I don’t know how to be around people. Even my family. The only time I feel close to normal, close to human, is at night, when you or Shiro or both of you sit with me. Let me just talk, or not talk. Yet, I know that’s not normal either. I shouldn’t _need_ someone to sit with me. I shouldn’t be such a baby.” He lifts Blue, “I shouldn’t find a piece of happiness in something childish like this.”

Keith waited for a moment, to make sure Lance was finished talking. “I wish I had the right answers for you. Hell, I wish I could just take the pain and the confusion away, but I don’t and I can’t. What I can do, and hope I already am doing, is support you and help you. If sitting here with you helps, then I’ll do it everyday without question until you no longer want me to. If stuffed animals or toys bring you some joy, then I say start a collection. Just because you’re an adult, doesn’t mean you can’t like certain things. I have an entire collection of comic books and enjoy watching Disney movies and Anime.” He runs a hand through his hair and looks away from Lance. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I think it’s…cute, how you lit up when you seen Blue on the shelf, how you made Shiro and I get our own colors too.”

“Cute? Like in a ‘aww that little kid is being so cute’ or—”

“Or.” Keith cuts him off, not sure if he can handle Lance saying the words that have been causing him and he’s sure Shiro so much distress. He has been avoiding saying things out loud like this to Lance. He can’t tell him that over the weeks he’s been here that he’s falling…stupidly fast. He can’t tell him that he and Shiro have had late night conversations about Lance being _with_ them, but they always come back to reality. They know Lance is vulnerable right now. That he’s still healing, he still has all the legal crap to go through, that they especially can’t jeopardize. They both know they’re terrible, horrible people for even thinking of Lance wanting any type of relationship outside of friendship. Keith doesn’t know if he’d ever even be able to sit like this with someone if had done the things to him that they did to Lance. He’s disgusted in himself for the little pitter patter his heart does when he sees Lance smile, or when Lance interacts with his family. He shouldn’t feel this way…but he does, and he knows Shiro does too.

“Oh…” Lance whispered. “Isn’t…isn’t there uh rules for that kinds stuff in your job?”

“Um yes. We are not allowed to pursue a relationship with anyone pertaining to an open case because it could make court messy.”

“Will me staying here cause problems?” Lance asks, face paling.

“No. We put in all the proper paper work and it was all approved. We are allowed to help you for witness protection purposes. We are just not allowed to use anything you say to us here, unless recorded upon your approval, in court. It’s why we record all our questioning at the agency, so there’s no doubt.” Keith answers easily, relieved for the slight subject change.

“Okay…good. I don’t want to mess up anything. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder the rest of my life.” Lance rolls onto his side, facing Keith. “Thank you for sitting here.”

“No problem.”

“Goodnight, Keith.”

Keith smiles in response, and Lance closes his eyes tugging Blue even closer. After almost two hours his grip finally loosens and he starts to lightly snore. Then and only then Keith gets up carefully not to wake Lance. Before he leaves he runs his fingers through Lance’s hair, heart skipping a beat when he feels Lance lean into the touch. When Keith reaches the door way he whispers, “Goodnight Lance,” and leaves to start his planned cleaning for the night.

Maybe…just maybe, someday, it won’t just be a far fetched fairy tale.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I apologize for the short short short chapter that this is, but I wanted to get something out to you guys! I know it's been a while again, so I didn't want to keep you waiting too long. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy this short chapter!

“Are you ready?” Keith asks Shiro, ten minutes before the anesthesiologist is supposed to sedate his love.

Shiro took a deep breath and shut his eyes, “Maybe? I don’t know. I’ve only just gotten used to the fact that my arm is gone. Now I have to trust some gadget that Matt made?”

“You know Matt. You know it will work out just fine. You’ve been looking at it for two days now.” Keith argued.

Shiro looked over at the box containing his new arm. Matt did do a wonderful job on it. It’s a sleek silver with black paneling on the joints of the elbow and fingers. He’s explained multiple times how it’s supposed to work like an actual robotic arm and not just some limp prosthetic but Shiro didn’t understand a whole lot that was being said. The one thing he didn’t miss though, was how Matt gave it weaponry features, which have an off switch and safety mechanism to it. “Yeah I know I’m just…”

“Scared?” Lance supplied coming into the room, followed by his father and Coran. He had spent the night with them only after Coran swore he would get Lance to the hospital before Shiro’s surgery.

Both Shiro and Keith brightened up when Lance came in and it didn’t go unnoticed by Lance’s father, who raised an eyebrow at the two. Keith quickly looked down and Shiro gave him an apologetic look. “Lance. Do you mind if you and Coran wait in the hall for a moment. I’d like to speak with Shiro and Keith.”

Furrowing his brow Lance leaves, or more like is ushered out of the room by Coran.

“Mr. McClain we sw—”

“Let me speak first.” Mr. McClain cut off Shiro. “My son has been through unimaginable things. He lost his childhood. His teen years, his _life_. I hope for the sake of him and of you two that you realized how much damage has been done. How there is a very slim chance that he will recover properly without major problems. Dr. Holt told me he has Depression, PTSD, severe anxiety, and that just names a few! I fear he will give up this fight, that he won’t make it. He does not need two men making advances on him. How could you even expect him to have anything like a normal relationship?” Lance’s father crosses his arms and huffs, “With that being said, I also haven’t gotten to properly thank you. Not only for finding my son, but for not letting those bastards get him again. It can’t be easy sacrificing your own wellbeing like that, but I do truly thank you.”

Shiro can see Keith’s anger boiling, so he decides to speak quickly. “I was just doing my job Sir. I took an oath to serve and protect. I do admit though that I had a bit more motivation to throw myself into danger this time around, but I don’t regret it.” Shiro takes Keith’s hand, hoping to help soothe the younger man. “We understand that Lance has been through a lot. We know. We’ve questioned him. We’ve heard his screams at night. We also understand that he may never be able to have a normal relationship, but no one has the right to decide that for him. He is not damaged, he’s traumatized. Therapy and some medication will help him get things under control so he can start the long journey of recovering. I promise you that we do not intend on making any sort of move on your son. We never want him to feel like he has to do anything to receive our kindness and friendship. So we do not want to risk what might happen if we were to do anything he may not be comfortable with. I must repeat one more time though, he is _not_ damaged, and I suggest you tread more carefully about how you speak of him. What would happen if he had heard you?”

Mr. McClain looked taken aback, and didn’t say anything. Instead he nodded once and left the room, allowing Lance and Coran to return.

Lance made his way to stand next to Shiro’s bed, just in time for the anesthesiologist to come in. She hooked up an IV to Shiro’s hand, with Keith and Lance watching intently. “This will help you relax a bit. You might start to feel a little loopy, but that’s completely normal. In about fifteen minutes the nurses will come get you and wheel you to surgery where I will administer the anesthesia to put you into a deep sleep. Any questions?”

“How long will the surgery take?” Keith asks.

“Hopefully no more than 5 hours. It is quite complicated though, Mr. Holt is with the surgeon now so they can go over their plan. A nurse will come update you every hour if you’d like.”

“Yes, we’ll be in the waiting room the entire time.” Lance spoke up for Keith, who looked paler than normal.

After the anesthesiologist left Lance sat down in the chair on Shiro’s right side, the side he’ll soon have a new arm on. He watched curiously as the meds started to kick in. Shiro was holding Keith’s hand and smiling up at the long haired man. “You…are so beautiful. Did you know that?”

Keith blushed, “Shut up. You’re talking crazy because of the meds.”

Lance couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped through his lips, which gained Shiro’s attention. The older man smiles kindly at Lance, “Your laugh is cute…I like it.”

“Thank you.” Lance mumbled, looking down at his feet.

“Oh man…my head feels a bit fuzzy…”

“That’s normal, the drug is working on relaxing you, it will be okay.” Keith reassures Shiro.

“Wow…you’re beautiful.”

Lance laughed even louder this time and Keith shot him a playful glare.

Shiro’s eyes snapped to Lance and he just gawked at the too skinny, Cuban man. “Wow…did I die? Because this has to be heaven…to have two of the most gorgeous men in my presence.”

“ _Oh my God Shiro!_ ” Keith shrieks, “You can’t just say things like that!”

“Buuuttt, it’s true! Keeiittthh, I love you.” Shiro slurs.

Rolling his eyes Keith runs a hand through Shiro’s hair, “I love you too.”

Meanwhile Lance is gaping at Shiro, did he really just say that? About him? He must be delusional from the meds. No one could possibly think that of a malnourished, used up, and fucked up person like him. He decides to try and push back what Shiro said. It’s bad enough that Keith, in not so many words, confessed how they both feel toward him, but Lance can’t even pretend to think it’s true, or to indulge in it, because who knows what would happen. Who knows if at any moment he freaks out and ruins everything. He’ll have to talk to Dr. Holt about his dilemma and his fear of letting anyone touch him in anyway. Sure he’s hugged and laid with both Shiro and Keith, but that’s different…it’s not… _intimate._ It’s for comfort only.

“Whoa!” Shiro draws Lance’s attention back to him, along with the rest of the people in his hospital room. “Where’d my arm go?” he chuckles a little, “Keith…did you know my arm is gone?”

“Yes Kashi I did. That’s why you’re here. You’re about to get a new one shortly.” Keith gestures toward the box containing Shiro’s prosthetic.

“That is so cool! I bet Matt made it!”

“Of course Matt did. He’d never let anyone do something so important besides himself.”

The next fifteen minutes passed quickly, Shiro becoming more and more loopy. Even dozing off here and there. When the Nurses came to wheel him to surgery, Keith gave him a long kiss, promising his love that he’ll be just fine. Lance placed a hand on Shiro’s chest and said, “Stay strong.”

Then Lance, Keith, Mr. McClain, and Coran watched as Shiro’s bed was pushed down the hall, none of them leaving his vicinity until he passed through the doors to surgery. He’s survived worse than this, and Keith knows it will all work out. He knows with Matt in there with the surgeon that nothing will go wrong. Now they just have to wait.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone...sorry about the long long wait.
> 
> I've been in a pretty dark place lately and just honestly haven't have the energy to write. I appreciative each and everyone of you that have stuck with this story, even though it has a shitty update "schedule"

Shiro’s surgery went well, now that he’s resting, Keith takes Lance to the agency; he has an appointment with Dr. Holt. The drive there is quiet, aside from the tiny tap, tap, tap of Lance’s fingers on the door. Keith glances at the Cuban man, and sighs, “Shiro is fine, he just needs another week or so for recovery and then some physical therapy.”

Lance’s tapping stops and Keith can feel Lance’s eyes on him. He glances over again, and Lance looks almost…angry. “I _know_ Shiro will be okay. I’m not an idiot. I listened to what everyone was saying.” He huffs, turning in his seat, arms crossed, “Why does everyone explain things to me, over and over again like I’m a child, or like…like I’m stupid?”

“I…I don’t know. All I can say is I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.”

Lance scoffs, “How about instead of thinking you know how I’m feeling or what I’m thinking…you _ask._ Everyone keeps thinking they know everything about me! Maybe, just maybe I was tapping because talking to Dr. Holt…sucks! It brings everything back…it makes me feel like there’s something wrong with me! I even heard my papa talk about me like I’m some fragile thing. I’m a fucking survivor! I never once let them break me! I-I never ever gave them the joy of me enjoying it, no matter how much they asked me if I was, or told me I was. I did my best in that hell hole! I-I—” Lance hiccups, “I just don’t…don’t want what happened to me…be the only thing people see.” He wipes his face, and stares out the window.

Before Keith can respond, they’re parked in the agency’s garage, and Lance practically jumps from the car and heads in. Keith grips the steering wheel and then bashes his forehead against it three times while chanting, “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

By the time he gets to the Voltron office, Lance is already in the room with Dr. Holt. Keith goes up to the viewing window, and watches as Dr. Holt sets out crayons and a coloring book, which Lance grabs and chucks across the room. Dr. Holt is clearly shocked.

***

“Lance, why did you do that?” Dr. Holt asked, sitting across from him.

Lance glares, “I’m not a child!”

Dr. Holt sighs, “I’m sorry if you thought I was treating you like a child. You seemed to enjoy coloring, that is the only reason I continued to let you do it while we spoke. From now on I will let you decide if you want to color or draw.”

Lance places his elbows on the table, and supports his head in his hands. More tears dripping from his face.

“I noticed you were upset when you got here. Want to tell me why that was?”

“Everyone thinks I’m dumb, or…or broken. Even my family. I-I know they’re all worried about me, but I’ve survived so much. I…I don’t need their pity. I don’t need them babying me. What I need is for them to treat me like a human-being. I need them to let me be normal, and need them to act normal around me.”

“I believe everyone thinks you are stuck in a child’s mindset. I may be partially to blame for that. You’ve proven time and time again that you know more than an eight-year-old does.”

Lance shrugged, “I went to meetings. Sure I was there as a sort of…pet I guess, but I listened to them. I maybe not be educated, but I developed as a person. Maybe I can’t read that well, and I barely know basic math, but…I’m an adult. Sure, sometimes I don’t really know what’s going on, but…whatever.”

“You are unfamiliar with society, it makes complete sense that sometimes you’re confused, or unsure how to act. Is there anything else bothering you today?”

Lane glances at the mirror, where he knows Keith is standing on the other side, probably with his arms crossed and a worried frown on his face. “I’m worried…that Shiro and Keith… _like_ me. In the same way they like each other.”

“Why does that have you worried?”

“Because I think…maybe I like them too, but…I don’t know.” Lance lifts his head and is surprised to see a kind smile on Dr. Holt’s face.

“What don’t you know?” The doctor asks.

“What if…what if I only think I feel that way because they’re nice to me?”

Dr. Holt chuckles a little, “I’m nice to you. Hunk, Allura, and Pidge are nice to you. Do you think you might like them in that same sense?”

Lance cringes and shakes his head, “No. Not at all. I…it’s different. They make me laugh and I have fun with them, but—” Lance buries his face in his hands, “But with Keith and Shiro…I get nervous, I guess. I…I want to make _them_ smile. I…my heart does something weird sometimes too.”

“Ah, yes, you definitely have a crush on them. I suggest you don’t jump head first into that crush though. Give yourself time to heal, time to find who you are now.”

“I wouldn’t do that to them anyway.”

“Do what?”

“I’ve seen movies, I’ve seen my parents, I can’t…be…affectionate. Hell, I attacked Shiro because I forgot that sex is a normal thing. I know where babies come from and that its natural and whatever, but…I panicked. When I saw them…all I saw was the barely lit room. The nasty mattress on the floor, the chains. All I could think about was the pain, was the anger. So I attacked him, I had to save Keith.”

“You were triggered. That happens, and with time you’ll be able to get more control of it. You need to know though, that you don’t _have_ to do anything you don’t want ever again.” Dr. Holt glances at the time and asks, “Is there anything else for today’s session?”

Lance runs his hand through his hair, “How do I not feel guilty about Shiro…He lost his fricken _arm_ because of me.”

“Shiro took an oath to serve and protect. He knew the dangers, just like they all do, that comes with the job. He has put himself in dangers way, many, many times. The scar across hi nose for example, happened when he took it upon himself to run into a  hostage situation. The perp had a large knife and as they battled for it, the blade came down on his face. He does this job because he wants to protect people from the evils in this world. He wouldn’t want you feeling bad for him. Just like you, he’ll want to be treated normal.”

Lance nods, “You’re right…thank you.”

***

Lance leaves the room with a soft smile on his face and Keith hesitates, but goes up to him. “So, uh…how was it?”

Lance raises an eyebrow, “It was okay. We didn’t talk too much about the things that happened in the past. So it was nice not to have to…remember.”

“Lance, I just—”

Keith is cut off by a tall blonde women, “You must be Lance! I’m Romelle. I’m a friend of Allura’s. She said you might be interested in some home schooling.”

“Oh, uh, yeah I suppose that would be nice. Since I guess I can’t really go back to school…”

“Wonderful! I will be in touch with Keith and Shiro to set up times that work to meet up!”

Lance says goodbye, and Keith is still a little dumbfounded, why had he not thought of that? He shakes his head and asks, “Ready to go home? Or do you want to see Shiro?”

“Lets bring Shiro dinner. I’m sure he’s hungry, since he couldn’t eat before his surgery.” Keith smiles and Lance clears his throat, “Could we…stop at the store and…and get him a get well present? I know I don’t have any money, but…” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, “I would like to get him something, if…if you’ll buy it…without…you know.”

Keith smiles, a little sadly, “Of course we can do that, and I know you already know this, but no one will ever ask you for the kind of payment you’re used to.”

Lance nods, face a little ashen, but swallows his panic, and leaves with Keith.


	11. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading my story! 
> 
> A few Trigger warnings.
> 
> Smut  
> talk about smut  
> talk about past abuse

A few months have passed since Shiro’s surgery. He gets to come back to work in just two more days, but for Keith it can’t be soon enough. Shiro has always had a way to take the brainy ideas of Pidge and Hunks and somehow form them to include Allura and Coran’s more emotional responses. As for Keith, well, Shiro was just able to keep him calm, keep the stress away. Keith has always been a workaholic, barely even stopping when Shiro asked him too. Yet, now when he’s working at home, somehow Lance has this sneaky way of getting him to come watch a movie, or read, or really anything. So lately he’s been saving his work for when both of them are asleep.

Right now Keith is in the gym on the lower level of their FBI agency. He’s beating the shit out of a boxing bag, trying to relieve some of his pent up anger. It’s been MONTHS since they found those kids and Lance. Yet somehow, like always, it’s becoming a dead end, a cold case. Lance deserves justice, deserves freedom and not having to look over his shoulder every day. None of the Galra members they have in lock up are talking. Apparently all afraid of Lotor and Zarkon. Speaking of them, they can’t get a warrant for their arrest because of a stupid technicality. Supposable even though Lance identified BOTH of them, there’s no solid evidence that they can hold them with, because Lance saw Lotor at the store once fricken time. They’re claiming that Lance was so unstable at the time that he used Lotor’s name because he felt pressured to say something. It still doesn’t explain how Lance knew Zarkon’s name, but Lotor is claiming they spoke of him that day to Keith and Shiro. The only way they can take them down with witness i.d. is if one of the other kids pick them out of a line up or name them. Unfortunately, too many parents got in the way of that. As soon as Lotor or Zarkon entered the line up the kids would start to panic, and as they tried to calm them and get them to choose a number, their parents would step in and put a stop to it.

Keith continues to pound the bag, hands starting to get numb, only stopping when he hears a soft, “Keith?”

Panting, he looks up and toward the door, “Hey Lance. I thought you were studying?”

Lance shrugs, “I was. I’m taking a break, and Pidge said I could find you here. Are you…okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, just stressed is all. Nothing new.” Keith waves him off.

“Okay, um…I wanted to tell you I’m going to go home with Coran once he’s done with whatever he’s working on. My family is looking at houses today, since dad’s transfer finally went through. They want me to come with.”

Keith smiles, “Thanks for letting me know. Have fun with your family okay.”

“Ha, yeah, hopefully. Anyway, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow or something.” Lance turns to leave but pauses and looks over his shoulder, “And Keith? Please try and relax some tonight.”

“I will…don’t look at me like that! I will I swear.”

Lance nods and leaves. Suddenly Keith doesn’t want to work out anymore.

***

Scowling, sitting at the kitchen table, Keith looks through what feels like the thousandth legal website trying to figure out what they can do, how they can get by all the lupeols that Lotor found. Until suddenly his laptop is snapped shut. “Shiro! What the hell? I was working.”

“I know, you’re _always_ working. Even on a night that we have the house all to ourselves. On a night where we could be doing something more… _satisfying._ ” Shiro smirks walking away. He doesn’t get far before he hears Keith scrape the chair along the floor, no doubt almost tipping it over.

Shiro beats him to their room, but when Keith hurries in he’s hopping on one foot trying to pull his skinny jeans off his other leg. Shiro can’t help but chuckle, but also can understand the anticipation. It’s been way too long since the last time he felt Keith around him. A shiver runs down his spine as Keith crawls onto the bed and over to Shiro who’s standing near the end of it. He looks up at him, memorizing purple eyes, pupils blown wide always, staring up at him. Shiro can’t deal with Keith’s teasing today, just that look almost had him undone. He starts to strip, and breathes, “Lay on your back baby, I want to see your face today. See how good you’re feeling underneath me.”

Keith groans, strips his briefs, and does as Shiro asks. It doesn’t take long for Shiro to gather to lube, and as he reaches for the condom box Keith stops him, “No. We don’t need one of those. I wanna feel _all_ of you tonight.”

Shiro climbs onto the bed in his naked glory, and Keith automatically spreads his legs. Not wasting any time, with no intention to move slow, Shiro lubes up his fingers. Touching one to Keith’s entrance, he leans over and presses a searing kiss on his lovers lips, pressing his finger into Keith, while swallowing his groan.

When Shiro is three fingers deep into Keith, neither of them hear the door, neither of them hear their names being called over Keith’s loud moans. And just as Shiro lines himself up and starts pressing into Keith, neither of them feel the presence of someone standing in the hall, watching them.

***

After a terrible evening with his family, being coddled and pitied, Lance asks Coran to take him back home…or well to Keith and Shiro’s home. He didn’t feel like spending the night with them anymore. When he came into the house, it seemed oddly…empty. He called out for Shiro and Keith, but got no answer. He would have assumed they had gone out if it wasn’t for the lights on, and Keith’s laptop on the table. He never leaves it out. When he gets closer to the stairs he can hear it. The sounds Keith was making started to make Lance feel nauseous. The Galra who used him always made those kinds of noises. Steadying himself, reminding himself that sex is normal, sex is supposed to be good, he heads up the stairs, intending to go straight to his room and to bed. His family exhausted him.

For some reason though, when he heard both Keith and Shiro’s breathless moans, he moves toward their room. Their door is wide open, and Lance grips the door frame with both hands, sort of standing half in the doorway, and half against the wall. He watches as Shiro pushes himself into Keith, and how Keith’s back arches. He never did that. He always tried to pull away because of the pain.

He bites his lip as Shiro Kisses down Keith’s stomach and says, “Tell me when you’re ready.”

After a moment, Keith breathes, “I’m, I’m good, you can move.” So Shiro does, pulling out slowly, and more gently than Lance ever experienced, pushed himself back into Keith. “Fuck, Takashi, I’ve missed this. Missed feeling you.”

Shiro kisses Keith, “You feel so good baby. I could stay this way forever.”

Keith snorts and slaps his arm playfully, “Enough teasing, I need you.”

Shiro kisses Keith hard before pushing his knees to his chest, bracing his hands on the back of Keith’s legs.

Lance can’t take his eyes off of them as Shiro moves harder and faster, as Keith practically sobs. Though, Lance can tell the difference. They’re not sobs from pain. The look on Keith’s face shows no sign of discomfort. Besides he keeps screaming, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Right there Takashi.”

As Lance watches them, his heart rate starts to increase, but he doesn’t feel panicked. His lips part and he slowly wets them, eyes glued to where Shiro and Keith are connected. He can feel his pants tightening, and he gulps when he looks down. He’s hard…so hard. The only time he can ever remember being hard was with morning wood, but for him that almost always went away immediately . Never once when he was being used had he ever been…aroused. He honestly never thought he ever would be.

When Keith screams, cum covering his stomach, Shiro groans and stills. As they catch their breath, Shiro slowly pulls out, giving Keith another slow kiss. “I love you.”

Keith smiles softly, “I love you too.” He looks down at his stomach, “Lets go shower.”

When they both stand Lance’s eyes move down their bodies, moves down Keith’s legs, seeing cum leak out of him. “No blood,” He sighs, in relief. He doesn’t know if he’d ever be able to have a normal sexual relationship with anyone if blood was involved. There was always so, so much blood.

Lance grips onto the door frame harder, terrible memories trying to take over his mind. They don’t get far because he jumps when he hears, “Shit! Lance!”

He looks up and watches Keith and Shiro try to scramble to cover themselves. Suddenly he feels like watching wasn’t the best idea. “How-How long have you been there?” Shiro asks, his face, ears, and neck turning red.

Lance frowns, “When you penetrated Keith.” He pauses as they look almost…horrified. “Was I…am I not supposed to? I was, just curious.”

Keith shifts uncomfortably. “I need to shower, Shiro can you?” He gestures toward Lance.

“Yeah I can. Lance, do you mind either waiting in your room or going downstairs and waiting for me so we can talk?”

Lance steps away from the door frame and Keith’s eyes narrow in on the front of his jeans, and turns even more red. “I-I’m gonna, gonna shower now.” He squeaks as he hurries to the bathroom.”

Furrowing his brows, confused by Keith’s behavior, Lance says, “Yeah, I’ll be downstairs I guess.”

***

Lance sits on the couch, and looks down at his crotch. It’s starting to become an uncomfortable hurt. He’ll have to ask how to make it stop. He isn’t alone long, soon Shiro joins him in sweats and a t-shirt. He opts to sit in one of the arm chairs.

Lance shifts, trying to get comfortable and Shiro sighs, “First off Lance, I thought you were staying at Coran’s tonight?”

Picking at his nails he shrugs, “I was, but my family…ugh. My mom can’t stop tearing up anytime I have a question that I shouldn’t probably have. My dad can barely stand to be in the same area as me like I’m some disease, and don’t get me started on my siblings. Marco went back to Florida because he has his own family there, but Veronica…my god is she getting on my nerves. Every five seconds she’s asking if I’m okay, if I need anything, or if I need to rest. How am I supposed to move on if they can’t and won’t let me?”

“I’m sorry Lance, I wish that wasn’t the case.” Shiro pauses and rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t really want to have this conversation, I’m embarrassed enough but—”

“Why are you embarrassed?” Lance asks, with an eyebrow raised. “I’ve seen sex a million times. Is it something that’s supposed to not be seen?”

Shiro coughs, “Uh, kinda. I mean there are some people who like being watched, but consensual sex is normally done in privacy.”

“Oh…I’m sorry. I was…I just…oh God I’m a perv!” Lance pulls his feet onto the couch, wrapping his arms around his legs and hiding his face in them. “I-I’m just as bad as them! They watched! I-I remembered wishing they wouldn’t, wishing I could disappear.” He hiccups, “I-I’m so so sorry!”

Getting up, Shiro sits next to Lance and pulls the crying Cuban man into his arms, letting Lance uncurl and bury his face in his chest instead. “It’s okay Lance. You didn’t know. It’s natural to be curious, but maybe next time just ask someone to explain things okay? And, I’m sorry you had to see us like that again. We’ll have to be more careful next time.”

“What? No? I uh…”

Shiro runs his hand through Lance’s hair, “What is it?”

“You guys don’t have to be careful. I-I’m fine really. It doesn’t bother me anymore, I won’t over react like I did the first time. And now I know not to watch.” Lance pauses, “But uh, I do have a question.”

“Ask away.”

Lance sits up crosses sits sideways on the couch, crossing his legs, and looks straight at Shiro, “What do I do when I get a boner?”

Shiro almost chokes on air, and once his coughing fit is over he tries to answer, “Uh, well, there are, a couple of things you could do. You could take a cold shower. Or um, you could…masturbate.” Lance bites his lip, and God does Shiro want to be the one doing that, but he pushes that thought back. Trying to focus on helping their friend.

“What’s that?”

Nope, nope, nope, Shiro can not be having this conversation. So he yells, “Keith? I know you’re done showering! Get down here!”

Slowly Keith emerges and sits on Lance’s side. “Okay, I’m here. Now what?”

Shiro looks from Lance to Keith, but can’t seem to make the words come out. Lance notices and asks again, “What’s masturbate mean?”

Keith’s eyes get wide and his face becomes the darkest shade of red Shiro has ever seen. “I um…wow. Well, it’s a way to uh…geez. It’s a way to relieve yourself.”

“I’m confused. I didn’t need to pee before this talk, I just had a boner, and Shiro said to masturbate.” Lance says innocently.

Gaping like a fish, Keith tries to figure out what to say. “Not relieve yourself as in peeing, but relieve yourself as in coming. Working through your arousal.”

“OH!” Lance draw out, then with the straightest face asks, “How do I do that?”

This conversation is definitely going to be the death of Shiro and Keith. They’re most likely going to have to go another round after Lance is asleep. Keith runs a hand through his wet hair, “Well, um there’s lots of ways, but the most common is to…um…wrap your hand around your, uh…fuck this is hard…wrap your hand around your…your penis and pump it. Um, some guys like to do that and uh…also maybe use their fingers in their…um—”

“Their butt?” Lance asks, head tilting to the side, completely unaffected by this conversation unlike Keith and Shiro, who is shifting in his seat.

“Yeah, uh yeah, but if you do that um…lube…use lots and lots of lube…to ah, avoid pain and tearing.” Keith takes a deep breath trying to center himself. “A-another way is to use…toys. Like vibraters, um dildos, there’s an array of them.”

Lance nods as Keith speaks, “Okay thanks! I’m going to study now.” Lance says getting up from the couch, digging through the backpack he dropped by the stairs and pulling out his notebook and a work book. He then lays on his stomach on the floor in the living room and gets to work.

Keith can’t help but gawk. He knows Shiro is having the same issue in his pants as he is, but Lance is completely unphased. Keith has to smack Shiro’s arm when he catches his boyfriend staring at Lance’s ass. He can’t say he wasn’t or doesn’t, but now is not the time!

***

Later that night after Lance announces he’s going to bed, Shiro and Keith wait an hour before heading upstairs, peak into Lance’s room to see if he’s sleeping and then hurry to their room. They make sure to shut the door all the way, and they both know this round isn’t going to be sweet or gentle. They’ve been pent up all night, from the idea of Lance watching, to having to explain how to pleasure himself. They don’t even undress, Keith pulls down his pants, bends over the bed, and Shiro moves his enough to pull his dick out. Keith is still stretched pretty well from earlier so Shiro lubes himself up and pushes into his boyfriend. There’s no wait for adjustment, neither of them can handle that, instead Shiro’s pace is quick and hard as he fucks into Keith. They both cum fast and Shiro falls onto the bed next to Keith.

***

Lance awakes to muffles moans, so he slips out of bed and into the hall. He now knows he not supposed to watch, but no one said anything about listening. Even though their closed door he can hear them almost as clearly as if it was open. They’re shouting, and Keith is begging Shiro to go faster and harder. When they’re done, Lance scurries back to his room, and looks down at the tent in his pajama pants. He guesses now is as good of time as any to try masturbating.

He lays on his bed, and pulls his pants and briefs down to his thighs. He looks at his erection debating if this was something he wanted to do. He’s never cum before, he’s never even touched himself before except to pee.

With a shaky hand he grabs onto his dick, and takes a few breaths to steady himself. Slowly he starts to pump his hand up and down, and a jolt of pleasure electrifies his body. “Holy shit.” He breathes. Then he starts moving his hand faster, starts getting lost in the sensation. Nothing he’s done sexually has ever given him this feeling. Closing his eyes he pumps even faster, trying to keep his moans quiet, but fuck does it feel good. He isn’t sure how long it’s supposed to last, but he soon convulses as his eyes roll back, and he cums.

Once he comes down from his high, he uses a towel out of his clothes basket to clean himself up. Crawls into bed, and closes his eyes. Before he falls asleep, he wonders if Keith and Shiro heard him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. So this chapter is a pretty heavy one. So please read the triggers and please please please let me know if I missed one.
> 
> Trigger Warning:
> 
> Talk of past abuse (physical and sexual) Some of it is kind of descriptive   
> Talk of blood  
> Panic/anxiety attack/dissociation

Shiro and Keith are standing outside the observation window as Pidge questions Lance again. He looks uncomfortable, but because Keith and Shiro are so close with Lance, Allura thinks it’s best that someone else conduct interviews from now on. They’re already losing steam on this case, and just the thought of it being dropped has Keith gritting his teeth. Shiro sighs as Lance pulls his legs up onto the chair and curls up into a ball. Hesitating just a moment, he reaches over and turns on the intercoms.

“Lance, I really need you to tell me what happened to you and anything that you remember that may help us.” Pidge adjusts her glasses, watching him patiently.

Laying his temple on one of his knees Lance speaks so quietly it’s almost hard to hear him. “I was taken when I was a kid. At first I was just an occasional punching bag. I remember once they said they couldn’t even use me for ransom money because they followed my family and knew that we weren’t that wealthy. I was threatened that if I didn’t do what they said that they’d kill me. I’ve seen them do it, so I knew they weren’t lying.” He squeezes his eyes shut, and shudders out a breath, “Then they started using me and my body however they wanted. I’ve been chained up, collared, and raped so many times I lost count, but so many different people that eventually their faces started to blur together. A f-few times…I thought I was going to die. They rarely fed any of us. Then one of them started the whole payment thing, so they would offer us food more but one of us had to perform some kind of sexual act for it. Besides…the amount of food was barely enough, most days I would let the younger kids eat more. I thought maybe…maybe it would be okay if I starved to death, because being dead was a much better option than the horror that was my life. Even now I can’t escape it. If I have nothing to do it just replays in my head over and over. Almost every night I dream about it.”

“I am so sorry those things happened to you. Do you remember anyone specifically?

“Um, there was this one woman…she could be scary as hell when the others were around, but if she was alone she would sometimes clean our wounds, or bring us extra water, the only payment she asked for was a handshake. She never came down to use any of us, never beat us, and never asked us to do anything for her. She was the only one who treated us like actual people.”

Pidge perks up, “Do you know her name?”

Lance chews on his bottom lip. “S-She told me once, but…but I…I don’t want her to get in trouble. She…she helped us survive. Sometimes she would even talk to us, or tell the younger kids stories, and I know she’s in with a ruthless gang, but I know she’s good. She doesn’t deserve to be locked up.”

“I need her name Lance, if she’s as good as you’re saying we might be able to convince her to be out informant. We can likely offer her immunity is she does, which means any crime she has committed while working with the Galra would be brushed aside.”

Lifting his head Lance looks toward the mirror and asks, “Shiro, Is that true?”

Shiro presses the small button on the intercom and answers, “Yes it’s true.” Then he lets his finger slip from the button, listening intently.

Lance turns his attention back to Pidge and says, “Acxa.”

 

****

After weeks of searching every database they can, they can’t find anything on Acxa. It’s like she doesn’t exists. Keith looks over to where Hunk is helping Lance with some of the homework Romelle assigned him. “We have to tell him,” he sighed.

“I know. We will.” Shiro responds still furiously working, still trying to find any trace of Acxa.

****

Last night, Keith caught Lance peeking into their room again while he and Shiro were sharing a heated kiss. In fact, they’ve noticed Lance stopping at their room and peering into the door. Shiro joins Keith at the table, coffee in hand. “I caught him again.” Keith said, not taking his eyes off his phone, still checking some emails.

“I’m not sure what else we can do besides tell him he shouldn’t be doing that.” Shiro hums sipping his coffee.

Keith smirks, “If he likes watching us so much, I bet he would _really_ enjoy porn.”

“Just because you used to be a porn fiend doesn’t mean Lance needs to be!”

“What do you mean used to?” A shit eating grin crosses Keith’s face as Shiro chokes on his coffee.

Lance eventually joins them with some toast and some orange juice. “Morning.”

“Good Morning, how did you sleep?” Shiro asks.

“Pretty good. I was…uh, wondering if when you guys go to work today, if I could stay here?”

Keith’s eyebrows raise and he clarifies, “You want to stay here… _alone_?”

“Yeah, I have to learn to survive on my own at some point.” Lance mumbles around a bite of toast.

Both Keith and Shiro don’t want to admit how much that statement hurt a little. They haven’t even considered that fact that Lance will likely go out on his own or back to his family. “If you’re sure you want to we wont stop you.” Shiro says, nervousness in his voice.

About an hour later Keith and Shiro are about to head out, “We have all the numbers you might need written down for you. Make sure you lock the doors and windows. Don’t answer the door. Keep the blinds down. Don’t hesitate to call if you need someone…”

“Shiro…I know…you and Keith have been telling me this for twenty minutes straight. I can do this! I will probably only be watching T.V. or doing some homework all day.” Lance starts to push them toward the door. “Now get out of here and save the world from the evils that unfortunately exist.”

The two chuckle as the door is shut in front of them, the clicking of the locks indicating that Lance was listening.

Lance let his forehead fall against the door with a small thud, “I can do this…it’s just a house. It’s safe and I’ll be safe. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!” With a huff he pushes himself away from the door and settles himself on the floor by the coffee table to work on some of his homework.

****

After getting tired of homework, and not being able to find anything on T.V. that interested him, he thought back to what he overheard Keith saying this morning. Curiously he grabs Keith’s laptop and opens up an internet page. Unsure of what site to go to, he chooses to type the word, porn, into the search bar. He checks the time quick, he has about an hour until Keith or Shiro should be home.

He sighed when the page loaded, there were so many site to choose from. He decided to just go for the first one, assuming if it was at the top it was probably the most used. He clicks the link and nervously waits for the website to load. When it pops up he takes a shaky breath and starts to scroll through the site. He clicks on a video here and there, but they just aren’t doing anything for him…not like watching Keith and Shiro. The thought makes him feel a little guilty, and a little pervy, so he keeps searching.

Lance leans back against the couch, finally finding a video that at least stirs up his arousal. When that video is over another one automatically starts and he sits up straight, paling at the site. He knows that room. He recognizes the bed, the chains…the poor little girl. He starts to feel like he’s going to be sick, so he covers his mouth with his hand. He’s so frozen in fear and heartache that he can’t move, can’t even click the stupid x on the browser. Tears spill over his cheeks as he chokes on a sob.

He knows he needs to turn the site off, but his limbs feel like cement. The next video starts, and he gags into his hand, “No…” He whimpers. He sees himself hung up with chains around his wrists, toes barely touching the floor. He remembers this day…he had bit one of the Galra Generals when he wanted Lance to suck on his fingers. They beat him repeatedly, laughing at his cries, until they take turns using him over and over. The following video is even worse. It shows Lance with two dicks up his ass and one down his throat. He wraps his other hand around his throat, remembering how he never thought they would let him breathe, he can feel the pain in his low back, almost feel the blood running down his thighs.

As he feels himself getting ready to throw up he launches off the floor trying to get to the kitchen sink or garbage, but doesn’t make it. He stops as he retches all over the floor, dry heaving when he has nothing left in his stomach. Shaking he panics. He made such a mess. They’ll be mad…they’ll…the locks on the front door click, and he hears, “Lance, we’re home.”

In a frantic state, he yanks his close off, leaving him in his boxers and uses his clothes to scrub at the floor. “Lance?” he hears closer now. Scared he leaves the mess and scurries into the closest room, which happened to be the dining room, and he crawls under the table. He curls up, puts his hands over his ears, and squeezes his eyes shut. “No, no, no, no…not again…please not again.” He starts to rock, tears dragging over his chin and down his throat.

“What happened here?” someone questioned, and Lance whimpered pulling himself into a tighter ball.

“Shit. Lance.” Another voice curses. “Lance?”

His eyes snap open when he feels the chairs around him move. He watches as two figures drop to the floor and he tries to back up knocking over the chair behind him. “I’m sorry! I-I’m so so sorry!”

“Hey…Lance, look at me please.”

Lances eyes obediently fall onto the figure with long hair. He doesn’t recognize these Galra…they must be new…or…or he was finally sold.

“Can you come out of there?” The larger of the two asks.

Hating himself he uncurls and crawls out. He sits between them on his knees, head down, and hands behind his back. “Please…sirs…please d-don’t. I-I didn’t mean to make a mess. It-it won’t happen again.”

The long haired one moves and Lance flinches, but holds his position. He knows better than to move too much. There’s an oddly gentle touch to his face, a pair of cold hands covered in fingerless gloves cup his face and turns his head. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s just us. Keith and Shiro.”

Lance furrows his brows, unsure why this man, told him their names. Slowly, wanting to fix his mistakes, he hesitantly moved and straddles the small ones legs. Sniffling he starts to grind against the man and squeaks when the man grabs his hips and stops him. “S-sorry sir, I-I can do something else. I-I won’t fight. I know I m-made a mess.”

“Oh Lance.” Shiro breathes, “You didn’t do anything wrong. You got sick, that’s all.”

Then that’s when they hear and shout of no coming from the living room, sounding like Lance, which is impossible since he’s sitting in Keith’s lap. Shiro gets up and heads towards the screaming. He stops in his tracks when he sees the laptop, playing a porn video. A video with Lance in it. “Shit.” He hurries and pulls out his phone. “Pick up, pick up.” Shiro paces until the ringing stops, “Dr. Holt! Lance is having some sort of breakdown, he doesn’t seem to recognize us and is acting like he’s still with the Galra. It’s bad.” He listens to Dr. Holt carefully, who told him there’s nothing they can do except try to comfort him and remind him he’s not there anymore. There’s no specific ways to pull someone out of an attack like this, they just have to be patient. “Thanks Dr. Holt. Yes, of course I’ll keep you updated.”

Shiro makes his way to the kitchen to grab some towels and disinfectant to clean up Lance’s vomit. When he gets to the dining room, Lance is pawing at Keith’s pants, “ _Please_ sir! Let me…let me fix this. I-I can make up for-for the mess.”

Keith grabs at Lance’s wrists and pulls the poor shaking blue-eyed man into his arms. Lance shouts in surprise and confusion crosses his face when Keith just holds him tenderly. “It’s okay. You’re not there. I’m not Galra. You’re never going to be hurt like that again. I won’t let that happen. Come back to us Lance. I know you can snap out of it.”

When Shiro is done cleaning the mess and washing his hands, he picks Lance up out of Keith’s arms. He starts to squirm and panic more, but Shiro just shushes him and coos gentle soft words to him, telling him he’s safe over and over again. Keith follows them up the stairs, and pulls back the blankets on Lance’s bed, and Shiro sets him down.

Immediately, Lance rolls over, raises his hips, buries his face against the pillow and white knuckles the sheets.  Shiro sighs, sitting next to him, making Lance flinch hard when he puts his hand on his back. He rubs small circles on his back and hates himself as he says, “You can relax for tonight little one. Y-your punishment can wait.”

Keith crosses his arms and frowns at Shiro, but he knows what he’s doing. Lance is stuck. He thinks he’s with the Galra. The only way to get him to relax is to talk to him as if he’s actually going to get hurt.

Slowly Lance lowers his hips and turns onto his side, his back to the two other men. Shiro gets up and Keith runs a hand softly through Lance’s hair. “Sleep…you, er, you will need your rest?” It comes out like a question, but Lance doesn’t seem to notice.

“Yes, Sir.”

Shiro covers the shaking man up, and they slowly leave the room. Keith looks like he’s about to break down, so Shiro really doesn’t want to show him the videos, but…he has to. He takes his boyfriend downstairs and leads him to where the laptop is, the video long over. Shiro hits the back button and Keith collapses into the couch. His eyes widen, tears building at the brim. “Shiro…this is my fault. He…he must of heard me joking, so…so he tried it.” He leans over, rests his elbows on his knees, and face in his hands, “Oh God Shiro! I’m so stupid. He was doing so good and, and I ruined that.”

Shiro sits down next to Keith, “I understand you’re upset, but first and foremost, this is not your fault. You didn’t know he was listening okay? Second of all, it’s kind of a sick blessing in disguise. We have more evidence. Maybe there’s something in these videos that can help us. We don’t have to keep working up the courage to tell Lance his case was going cold.”

Slowly Keith raises his head, “You should go eat or go rest or something. I’ll search the username’s page and send everything they got to the others.”

“Are you sure you can do that?” Shiro asks tentatively.

“I have to. It’s still my fault this happened. It’s the least I can do to start making up for it.”

“I’ll make you a sandwich. You need to eat too.”

****

It took Keith until almost one in the morning to gather all the specific URLs. He grouped them by victims. There were so many videos, so many nasty comments, so much blood and pain.

Shiro had fallen asleep next to Keith, where he was sitting to try and comfort Keith as he searched the videos. Keith did his best to not watch the videos long, at least not here in their home. He’ll have to help the others watch them and listen for any clues or names or anything useful. He rubs his eyes, turns his computer off, and taps Shiro. “Come on, lets go to bed.”

Shiro groans as he gets up, and follows Keith up the stairs. They both stop at Lance’s room. The young man is tossing and turning in his sleep, mumbling incoherent words.  Keith walks away first. In their room he strips out of his clothes and into a pair of pajama pants. Shiro joins him a couple minutes later and does the same. They crawl into bed and that’s when the damn breaks. Keith lets out ugly, heart wrenching sobs and buries his face in Shiro’s chest. They’ve seen some terrible shit in their line of work, but this was like nothing they’ve dealt with before.  Shiro holds him close shedding his own tears he’s been holding back all evening.

****

There’s a soft knock on their door, and Shiro checks the clock. It’s okay three in the morning. The knock sounds again, just a little louder, so he croaks, “Come in.”

Lance opens the door slowly, still in just his briefs, clutching onto Blue. Keith stirs as Shiro sits up. “Lance?” he asks yawning. The man looks so beaten down that Keith’s heart instantly hurts. “Are you…back with us?”

Lance crinkles his brow, “Did I go somewhere?”

The other men share a look and decide not to say anything. “No, Keith’s just tired. Are you okay?”

Lance shifts his weight back and forth and drops his gaze to the floor. “I…I had a terrible nightmare. I can’t…I don’t want to be alone. Could…could I maybe sleep in here? With…with you guys?”

“Of course.” Keith answers, “Which side do you want?”

Lance shuffles towards the bed. “Can I…maybe…lay in the middle?” he pauses, “I feel unsafe right now, and…and scared.”

Without a word Keith and Shiro separate, making room for Lance in the middle. Lance visibly relaxes, and starts to climb in bed, but he stops, gets up, and grabs Shiro’s black lion, and Keith’s red one, smothering Blue in the middle of them. Then he climbs into bed, the lions all clutched to his chest.

Once he’s settled in, Shiro asks, “Better?”

Lance nods and bites his lip, holding back something.

“What are you thinking?” Keith questions, propping himself up on one arm.

“Would it be weird…or too much to ask…um…you guys to…to…never mind, it’s stupid.”

Shiro raises a brow at Keith, then looks at Lance. “Would you like to cuddle?”

Lance’s nods again. “I just want to feel grounded…to feel safe.”

The two other men shift closer to Lance, and each carefully and gently lay and arm over him. As all of them are about to fall sleep Lance mumbles, “Thank you, for saving me.” Shiro and Keith tighten their hold just a little more.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings:  
> Blood  
> Violence  
> Assault  
> Past assault
> 
> This chapter is pretty rough. I apologize.

Just a few short hours later, the FBI couple woke up for work. Lance, unsurprisingly, was already awake, sitting between them with their lions clutched to his chest and his knees drawn up. He barely acknowledged them as they got up and starter their morning routines. When Shiro was ready he said, “You should get ready. We can’t leave you alone today after what happened last night.”

Lance’s empty gaze lifted to look at Shiro and he nodded. Getting up he set the black and red lions on the men’s bed, and crossed the hall to his room. Shiro sighed and rubbed his eyes. He is going to need A LOT of coffee to get through today. Not only will Pidge likely have the files Keith sent her already saved into their data base so they can’t be erased, but he knows Keith will be beating himself up all day, and Lance…looks too much like the day they found him.

They called Lance for breakfast, but the most he did was come sit with them, staring down at the full plate in front of him. When they got to the agency, Lance followed them closely, his eyes never leaving the ground. The first thing Shiro did was pour himself a cup of coffee and then went toward his desk. Confused, he sees Keith squatting on the floor looking under the long haired man’s own desk. Shiro detours and joins him. Setting his coffee down he kneels next to his boyfriend.

Lance is tucked under Keith’s desk, head hung. “Lance, _please_ come out from there. You can go sit in the other room if you want.”

In response all Lance does is curl up impossibly smaller for his lanky body. Both men sigh getting up. Shiro grabs his coffee and gives Keith a sad smile before heading to his desk.

Keith sits in his chair, and carefully moves it forward, making sure not to get too close to Lance or squish him anymore than he already is. The first thing he does is pick up his office phone and makes a call to the McClain’s. It rings twice and is answered by Mr. McClain. “Good morning Sir. I wanted to let you know that we have another lead. I unfortunately can’t tell you the context of it, but I also need to inform you that your son has had another breakdown, and I’m afraid it may be my fault.” Keith pulls the phone away from his ear as he’s screamed at. Once Mr. McClain calms down, Keith takes the time to explain what happened, leaving out that Lance saw himself and people he knew on the videos. He apologizes profusely, but it’s falling on deaf ears. Before he can say he’s sorry again, the dial tone is ringing in his ear.

Slowly he hangs up the phone and rubs his face. Once he’s calmed himself a little, he opens the email he got from Pidge that has his set of videos to watch. Keith is a little relieved when at the top of the email it states that Keith and Shiro are not to watch the ones of Lance specifically, since them being close with their key witness could, in her words, “Could fuck this whole thing up.”

Keith plugs in his noise canceling head phones, so he can focus, and so hopefully Lance won’t be able to hear anything coming from them. Before he presses play on the first video he takes a look around. Shiro is sitting like a stone, head phones on, arms crossed, with a sad, disgusted, and angry look on his face. Pidge has a hand over her mouth, brows furrowed, but eyes trained on her work. Hunk…Hunk breaks Keith’s heart. He is the heart of their team. The one who is the most empathetic and able to connect emotionally with their victims and witnesses.  Keith can see the tear streaks down his face, but the big teddy bear doesn’t look away from his screen. Coran is sitting much like Shiro, only he is much more deflated and defeated looking. Lastly, Keith looks up stairs glancing into Allura’s office. She has a floor to ceiling glass wall so she can look out and keep an eye on their office and her team. She looks incredibly stressed, hands folded and leaning against her mouth.

Nothing can mentally prepare Keith, but he finally starts the first video. It starts with the camera panning across the scared faces of their victims. Keith’s heart aches when he sees how skinny, bruised, and scared they all are. The camera pans past a little tan skinned boy, still meatier than the others, sobbing uncontrollably. The blue eyes are instantly recognizable, and Keith knows that this must be not long after Lance was taken. Next to him is a teenage boy, he recognizes as James. When the camera stops on the distraught boy, a man reaches forward to grab him, but James steps in front of him. Keith cringes when the man behind the camera chuckles and is intrigued that someone would volunteer.

The boy is yanked forward into another mans arms. He struggles but the large man snarls at him and throws him onto the nasty mattress in the corner of the room, chaining his wrists above his head. When the Galra member turns around, Keith pauses the video and takes a snapshot of the video. They’ll be able to use the photos to see if they have anything in their database on any of these vile Garla’s. Then he hits play again.

He has a hard time watching the young man get raped, but takes another snapshot when the assaulters shirt rides up showing the bottom edge of a tattoo. As the video continues Keith stiffens when little Lance comes into the picture and he starts pounding his fists on the man’s back, screaming at him to stop. He’s tossed aside easily, but he doesn’t give up. Not until James grits, “Go…back to the corner…l-look away!”

Little Lance’s eyes meet the teens and he does as he’s told, but not before the camera man’s hand comes into view, curling around Lance’s neck. His blue eyes go wide, and he struggles as he’s lifted off the ground. The camera man then tosses him toward the corner.

Keith startles when something touches his leg. He looks down and sees Lance sitting between his legs, back to him, legs curled up, and head resting on Keith’s thigh. Sighing, he runs a hand through Lance’s hair. The younger man doesn’t flinch, but presses into the touch. _This is good_ , Keith thought, _he must be coming out of his episode._

Just then the door bursts open, banging against the wall. “Where is my son?” Mr.McClain seethes. All the Voltron agents take off their headphones and look toward the angry father. Slowly Keith backs his chair out, making Lance visibly and Mr. McClain loses it. “You son of a bitch! How dare you make him sit at your feet like your damn pet!” He approaches Keith, hands curled into fists, but Hunk steps out in front of him.

“Sir, please calm down. Lance crawled under there himself. Keith tried to get him out, but he refused. He’s having a rough morning, and we didn’t want to pressure him into moving if he didn’t want to.”

Mr. McClain looks down at his son who whimpers, curls cup tighter again, and presses himself further under the desk. He goes over, grabs his arm, and pulls his boy out. “Come on Lance, you’re coming with me. I refuse to let you stay with people who continually set you off.”

“Sir, You are no longer staying at my home, I cannot allow you to take Lance to an unsecure location.” Coran steps in.

“Then send some god damn police to sit outside out new house. I don’t care, but I will not allow my son to be put through hell over and over again.” He yanks on Lance’s arm.

Lance’s pupils dilate, almost taking all the color from them. “No…please no…”

“There is no arguing this. They are not good for you.” Mr. McClain goes to move again, dragging a stumbling Lance behind him.

“No, no, no,no! Not again!” Lance rambles before shrieking, “HELP! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME! DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME AGAIN!”

Shiro jumps into action before anyone can even process the situation. He pulls Lance and his father apart. The shaking Cuban instantly runs and presses himself into a corner. Then Shiro presses a hand against Mr. McClain’s chest before the older man can go after his son. “You need to assess the situation! Clearly Lance is dissociating. He doesn’t see you as his father right now. The way you were yelling and pulling at him put him back into that hell hole he was in. We can not let you take him with you until you calm down and Lance sees you as you.”

Mr. McClain nods, running a hand through his hair. Then he steps around Shiro and approaches Lance slowly. He sits on the floor in front of him, gently talking about their family.

The agents get back to work while also keeping an eye on the situation. After about and hour Lance rubs his eyes and slowly leans into his fathers arms. When they get up and head for the door, Coran informs them that there will be two police cruisers outside their home to help keep Lance safe. Lance looks over at Keith and Shiro before the door shuts behind him.

 

*****

Later that night, Shiro and Keith are sitting at their dining room table, attempting to eat, but really just poking at their food. Both of them are trying to get the images from the videos out of their head, but they’re burned into their minds. The shrill ring of Shiro’s phone makes them both jump, and he fumbles it a little before answering. “Hello?”

“Sh-Shiro.”

“Lance?”

“Shiro, th-they’re here. They…they killed the cops! They’re trying to get in.” Lance whispers and muffles a cry.

“Okay, okay! Just stay calm. Are you hiding?”

“Yeah. I-I’m in the basement with Vee. There’s a storm room under the stairs. I-I don’t know where my mom and dad are though.”

Shiro starts haphazardly putting his shoes and coat on, Keith following suit, even though he’s not quite sure what’s happening.”

“Keith! Call the others, send them to the McClain’s new house. The Galra are there!” Shiro demands as they rush out of their own home and into their car.

“Shiro! I heard the door! They’re in the house!” lance pauses before crying, “I hear my dad!”

Shiro flinches when he hears the echo of a gunshot. Veronica and Lance both start to panic. “Shh! You both need to be quiet! I know you’re scared and don’t know what’s happening but please! Please stay quiet. We’re almost there.”

There are more gunshots and with each one both Veronica and Lance whimper. “Vee!! Where are you going! Don’t! they’ll kill you! Vee!!” Lance whisper shouts. “Just stay here okay!” Shiro hears Veronica tell Lance in the background.

“Oh God…They’re all going to die…I…I just got them back…” Lance cries into the phone.

“You don’t know that. Just…just stay calm and quiet okay. We’re only a few blocks away now.”

 

****

When they arrive they find the officers dead right outside their cars, they must have been ambushed. Keith reaches for their duty belts, pulling free their guns. Shiro gives him a questioning look and Keith asks, “Did you grab yours before we left?”

Understanding washes over Shiro and he holds his hand out for one of the guns. Keith gives him one and they head for the house. The door is kicked in and they come across who much be a Galra gang member, gun shot through his left shoulder. There’s a lot of blood, but they can see the rise and fall of his labored breathing. Shiro grabs the automatic rifle on the floor next to the man, incase he gets his bearings and comes after them. They clear room after room, and when they reach the kitchen the amount of blood is unreal. Mr. McClain is draped over the kitchen island, and another Galra member is on the floor. Keith quickly checks for pulses and curses, “Fuck…both gone. He put up one hell of a fight though.”

Joining Shiro they see the pantry door has bullet holes scattered across it. Shiro stands to one side, Keith to the other. Keith reaches across the door, glancing at Shiro to get the go ahead. He flings the door open and they move guns pointed, to stand in front of the pantry. There, crumpled on the floor in her own puddle of blood is Lance’s mother. She must have gone in there as a last resort. They don’t linger long, and move across the kitchen to another open door. This one led to a set of stairs. They hurry down the stairs, still being cautious as well.

Sobbing comes from around the corner, as they step over the body of another Galra member, who has a gunshot wound dead center in his forehead. Keith’s heart breaks when they come across Veronica. She looks like she’s breathing, but just barely. Shiro kneels next to her, ripping a chunk of his shirt off, then pushes it against the wound in her stomach.

Keith slowly kneels in front of Lance. The Cuban man is on his knees, head hung, hands clung to a pistol. “Lance, can you give me the gun?”

Shakingly Lance sets it on the ground between them. “I had to. I…I couldn’t go back. I-I didn’t want to die.”

Keith pushes the gun away and cups Lance’s face. “Hey…it’s okay. You did nothing wrong.”

“I let her take me down here, I let her leave the storm room.” Lance cried.

“She’s still alive! There’s still a chance okay. Don’t give up on her like she didn’t give up on you.”

Lance nods shakily as shouts for Keith, Shiro, and Lance ring through the house. “ALL CLEAR!” Shiro yells back. “WE NEED AN EMT”

The thudding of hurried footsteps ring through the basement as the EMT’s and the rest of Voltron arrive on the scene. Veronica is loaded onto a stretcher and taken away before Lance can even blink.

“Holy shit! Nice Shot guys.” Pidge says, examining the body behind them.

“Wasn’t us. It was Lance.” Keith says standing up and offering a hand to help pull Lance up.

“You’re a Goddamn sharpshooter.” Pidge praises Lance. He just shrugs, crossing his arms in front of himself.

Lance looks towards the stairs, “Where are my parents.” When no one answers him he knows, “Oh…”

“Lance I’m…”

“Don’t.” Lance cuts Shiro off. He walks off and up the stairs. Keith goes to follow, but Shiro stops him with a hand on his boyfriends shoulder. Lance needs his space…needs time to process this new trauma in his life.

****

Veronica survived a ten hour surgery, and Lance hasn’t left her side since she was moved into the recovery room. His brother is on his way and Lance is dreading how things are going to go. He knows his brother already has weird feelings about everything. Now Lance is the reason their parents are dead and their sister is in critical condition.

He’s sitting on the ledge by the window, knees pulled up to his chest, head resting on them as he looks out the window. Voltron is taking shifts standing outside the door, not trusting patrol officers to do it. They think there might be a mole or a leak of some kind, letting the Galra know Lance’s whereabouts.

He lifts his head when he hears Hunk arguing. “I’m sorry Lotor, I can not let you in there. He’s grieving and worried. Now would not be the time to speak with him.”

“He is the only witness yet again! This can not wait!” Lotor snaps, pushing the door open and slamming it behind him.

Lance moves off the ledge and Lotor backs him into a corner.

“You think your slick don’t you! I should just kill you myself right now, but then I would lose everything.” Lotor moves in closer grabbing Lance’s chin, “Your little friends can’t protect you forever, and myself and my gang have broken you. You will always be nothing. Always be a burden. Lance squeezes his eyes shut when Lotor’s other hand gropes him “You will only ever be a plaything. No one will ever take a whore like you seriously.

“Lotor!” Allura yells from the hall, giving him time to pull away from Lance before she practically breaks the door off it’s hinges. “Do not harass our damn victim and witness!”

Lance’s stomach starts to turn. The feel of Lotor’s hands on him burns his skin.

“Just doing my job Princess.” He smirks as he leaves the room.

“How many times have I said don’t call me that!” Allura shrieks at the stupid nickname. Vomiting pulls her attention back to Lance who is bent over the trashcan. “Lance? Are you okay?”

He shakes his head as another round of nausea hits him. “He-he…”

“What happened?” Allura prods, setting a hesitant hand on Lance’s back as he retches some more.

“No one will believe me.” He says between dry heaving.

“I will. I’ve believed every word you’ve said. Even when you named Lotor and his father. That man has always given me a bad feeling.” Allura lowers her voice, trying to sound comforting.

“He…threatened me and…” Lance shivers, letting out another heave. “He g-grabbed my…” he trails gesturing to his crotch. “Ms. Allura…I…I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” He stands wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “They’re never going to stop. They’ve taken so much from me. So many people have been hurt and killed because of me.”

Allura hums in response before becoming serious, “Don’t let them take your spirit. You want justice for everyone?” Lance nods. “Then work your ass off. Get your GED. Go to College.” She pauses, a fond smile crossing her face. “Then come talk to me. I could use a sharpshooter on my team.”

Lance furrows his brows. “You…want me to be apart of Voltron?”

“It will take some damn hard work and dedication.”

“But…I’m broken.”

“If you believe that, then patch yourself up. Give yourself something to strive for. Something to live for. Become someone who can catch assholes like the Galra, who can save and protect victims like you. I know you’re strong. I know you’re smart. All you have to do is give yourself a chance.”

She didn’t give Lance a chance to reply, walking out the door instead, her long white hair flowing behind her.

“Sharpshooter. Protector. Voltron.” Lance whispers, “I’ll do it.” He tells himself, returning to the spot on the windowsill. He’s not going to give up. He’s not broken. He’s going to make it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another angsty chapter...it's a bit short, but better than nothing??

Lance must have fallen asleep in his spot on the window ledge, since the shutting of the hospital door woke him. He rubs his eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them. When he opens his eyes, he looks toward the door. “Maro!” Lance exclaims, crossing the room and clinging to his brother. His arms tight around his waist, bent just enough to burry his face in his brother’s chest. He holds on to him until he realizes his brother isn’t embracing him in return. He slowly looks up into Marco’s cold stare. Then his brother pushes at Lance’s shoulders until the youngest backs away. “Marco?” Lance questions.

The man across from him glared, hate clear in his eyes. He moves around Lance without a word and sits at Veronica’s side. He scoops her hand into his and starts speaking encouraging words to her in their native tongue.

Lance joins him, quietly pulling a chair up and sitting next to his big brother. He thought maybe he was just upset that Lance didn’t let him to their sister right away, so he leaned his head on Marco’s shoulder and listened to him speaking Spanish. After years of only curing and protesting in his first language, Lance sadly doesn’t remember a lot of it. He loves the sound of it, and vows to relearn it, it can’t be too hard since he spoke it fluently before.

Lance is shaken from his thoughts when Marco stands abruptly and walks to look out the window. Lance caught himself before he fell into the other chair.  The blue-eyed young man stares at the back of his brother’s head, confused by the way he is acting.

After far too long sitting in silence, Marco practically growls, “This is your fault!” He puts his hands on the windowsill and grits, “Our parents are _dead,_ and Veronica is what? In a damn coma for who knows how long? And why is this? Because you can’t fucking take care of yourself!” Marco huffs, turning to face his little brother, “When Veronica wakes, she will be transferred to a hospital in Florida. Where I can take care of her while she heals.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he finishes, “You have destroyed our family _twice_ now. I can’t do this anymore. Veronica doesn’t deserve it.”

“Mar—”

“No! Let me finish before your damn puppy eyes make me change my mind.” Lance bites his lip, waiting to hear more awful words from his brother. “I love you Lance…I always will, but…I can’t do this anymore. I can’t watch everyone I love crumble and die. I don’t know how to help you, and honestly don’t think I can. Only you can pull yourself out of the pit of hell you’ve been forced into. Until then…please don’t contact us. Please don’t involve us. I have my family to look after, and now Veronica.”

Tears trickle down Lance’s face, lip trembling as he nods. Slowly he pushes himself up, trying not to lose control of his emotions. He picks up Veronica’s hands and kisses the back of it, before leaning over and kissing her forehead. He sets his head against hers and whispers, “Thank you for not giving up on me.” He chokes back a sob, “I’m sorry.”

With one last look at Marco, Lance walks out of his sister’s hospital room.

“Lance?” Pidge calls as the Cuban man rushes past her. “Shit…” She pulls out her phone, quickly calling Shiro. “Lance just stormed out. I can’t leave my post, Allura would kill me.” Shiro hangs up before responding, and Pidge looks down the hall worried.

****

Lance locks himself in a stall of the nearest bathroom. He puts the lid of the toilet down and sits on it, pulling his knees up to his chest, making himself as small as possible to get his lanky legs onto the seat. When he’s sure he’s alone, he lets his sobs free. He already knew it was his fault, but to…to hear his brother saying it. To know they’re abandoning him… _hurts_. All he’s wanted for years was to be with his family. To see where they are in life. He wished so bad that when he returned they would accept him with open arms, but the only one who truly did was Veronica, and now his brother is taking her away. As much as he wants to give up, wants to escape the pain, the nightmares, the fear…he knows he can’t give into the dark thought in the back of his mind.

He’ll prove to Marco he can recover. If he wasn’t strong…he wouldn’t still be alive.

“Lance?” Shiro’s voice calls into the restroom.

Lance quickly wipes his eyes, trying to even his breathe as his chest heaves and his cries make him gasp. “I-I’m here.”

“Do you want to be alone?”

Letting out an anguished sob Lance croaks, “No.” He slowly uncurls and unlocks the stall door. He steps out and Shiro pulls him into his strong arms.

“What happened?” Shiro asks, stroking his prosthetic arm up and down Lance’s back as his flesh hand cradles his head to his chest.

In between his hiccupping breath Lance explains, “M-Marco…he’s taking Vee…to-to Florida. A-a-abandon-ning me. He-he doesn’t wa-want me in…in their lives.” He barely finished his sentence before crumbling into another round of hysteria. “I-I’m a-a-alone!”

“Shh, it’s okay Lance…you’re not alone. Not now, not ever. Keith and I will always support you. So will Hunk, Allura, Coran, and Pidge.”

Lance sniffles and whispers, “It’s not the same…they’re my family.”

“We can all be your family Lance. Family isn’t necessarily blood. Keith doesn’t have any relatives, but he still has family. We are his family. We support him, cherish him, love him. Sometimes he still thinks of his family, still misses them, but he also knows he’s not alone. Just like you’re not alone.”

Lance pulls away, running this arm across his nose, making the sleeve wet and gooey from both his tears and snot. “Can we go? I’d…I’d like to do some studying.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow, “Studying?”

“Yeah…Allura said if I get my GED and go to college I can be apart of Voltron. I…I really want that. I really want to be apart of the Voltron team and family.”

The smile that crosses Shiro’s face is blinding. “Well then, we will help you succeed.”

Lance sniffles one more time, lets Shiro put his hand on the middle of his back, and gently lead him out of the hospital. He stares out the car window, silently wishing his siblings well. Then he takes a deep breath and focuses. He has a plan. He has support. He _will_ succeed.


	15. Author's note (sorry)

Hey everyone,

 

I just wanted to apologize for how long it has been since I updated my works. I fell into a pretty severe bout of depression. So bad that my therapist had been floating the idea of hospitalization around. I know it would probably help it's just not something I can make work out for me with my other responsibilities. Somewhere in the low for me, I lost my passion and desire to write, at the time it just seemed pointless to me. The past two sessions I had with my therapist, we have been talking about self care. I rarely ever have time for myself anymore and I know its taking it's toll. She started talking about the things I used to love to do, and the first thing that popped into my mind was writing. I've published on amazon before, but just randomly stopped in the middle of a series because I just lost myself and my passion. She told me one thing I need to do is start writing again, everyday, at least for 30 minutes. That was my plan for tonight! But of course now my word documents are coming up with an error. And yeah I know I can just do it right on here, but I prefer to have an original copy as well because than as I write a new chapter I can go back and look to make sure I'm not reiterating the same thing over and over. I am so very sorry! I do hope that everyone can be a little more patient with me while I try to dig myself out of the deepest of holes right now.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and once again I am sorry from the bottom of my heart!


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you for waiting for me to get my shit together! 
> 
> I'm not 100% sure of any trigger warnings. This chapter is a little more laid back. I'd say if there are any it would be adult language, and nightmares. 
> 
> Please let me know if I missed possible triggers!

Lance stares out his bedroom window, snow sof t ly falling for the first time since the weather got colder. In a way its bitter sweet...Voltron is no closer in getting the  Garla , even though it has been months. Even though they found  some more  men who previously bought other kids, who surprisingly still  all  alive...except James...James couldn’t live with what happened to him, couldn’t get past the  trama ...he killed himself to get rid of the pain. But on the other  hand ...the people who “bought” the kids and teens...they were a group of activists who had an undercover member get in good with the  Galra . They called themselves the Blade. They did good things, helped re h abilitate all those lost souls. He just wonders if he was supposed to be one of them, but the  Galra  wouldn’t let him go. A P i ece of him is envious of those who were lucky enough to get the Blade to rescue them.

There’s a gentle knock on his door, “Come in.” He said, and the door opened to  revi le  Keith.

“Hey... its  time to leave so you can see Dr. Holt.” Keith said in a low tone. 

Nothing can ever prepare them for a therapy session. After Lance is always a mess, always such a burden to them, even though they say otherwise.  Sure  his nightmares have calmed down, his dissociation bringing out old memories and actions has cut back astonishingly, but the feeling of being disgusting and less than human...well, Lance doesn’t think that will ever leave him. 

He quietly follows Keith out of his room, down the stairs, and to the car where Shiro was already waiting in the  drivers  seat. Lance gets into the back and  buckles . The drive is quiet except for the soft hum of music from the radio. When they pull up to the agency Lance sighs. Shiro looks back at him and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to do this anymore.” Lance mumbles.

“What do you mean?” Keith turns in his seat to look back at Lance like Shiro was.

“Therapy.”

“Is it not helping?” Shiro catches Keith’s eyes for a moment before his attention was back on Lance.

“It’s not that, I do think it’s helpful, but I always have to think and talk about what the  Galra  have done and how to cope. It makes me feel like  t he only thing I am to anyone is  still just  a  victim  of the  Galra  Gang. I want to be more than that. I don’t want to continuously live my life looking over my shoulder or being treated like I’m broken.”

Keith gaped at Lance and Shiro sighed, “Lance you are so much more than just a vi c tim of the  Galra . You’re a survivor, a fighter, incredibly smart, you’re alread y finished your Ged, most people take years to do that, but you worked so hard and did it in months . You have come so far from the sever e ly underweight and beaten. You’ve learned how to cook, and found coping mechanisms so you can come to the store or out to eat w i th us.

“ Thanks  Shiro, your words are always kind.” Lance whispers as he gets out of the car and goes up the elevator before the two can get there.

Keith hates when Lance does that. He hates that he won’t believe their words. “I think I want to start training with him.  Also  I want to ask Allura if he can go through just the academy and not hold him to going to college. He’s proven how smart he actually is. When he said he was ready to take the test, I supported him, but also thought he wasn’t going to pass yet.  Romelle  did a great job too.”

“He might enjoy the training. It could make him feel more like he can protect himself and take care of himself.” Shiro agrees with Keith, Slipping his hand into his boyfriend’s.”

By the time  The  two men got to the Voltron Office, Lance was already in session with Dr. Holt. Keith climbs the stairs and knocks softly on Allura’s office door. She yells for him  to  enter . Keith steps into the sleek office, and sits down in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

“Good evening Keith,  What  brings you in after hours?” Allura asks.

“We brought Lance for his session with Dr. Holt, but I did want to talk to you about Lance.”

“Everything  alright? ”

“For the most part, yes. Lance had mentioned all he feels like is a victim still. So I was wondering since he learns fast, that maybe he could skip the college part of your deal, and just go through the academy.”

“Why exactly do you want to advance him to the  academy?” Allura  gives Keith her full attention.

Keith shifts in his seat, sitting up a little straighter. “The main reason is because he passed his GED with flying colors in basically record time. He’s twenty-two...by the time he’s finished with a  four year  law enforcement degree, he’ll be twenty-six. Then the year academy, he’ll be twenty-seven. I don’t want to see him struggle for another 7 years. I think If I start working with him in the gym and at the range, he could feel safer. I’ve even thought about taking him to the gun range to make sure that head shot wasn’t just lucky. Then once he gets some training and conditioning from myself and likely Shiro, he’ll be in shape for the academy which isn’t all physical. It teaches the laws, the way being an officer or agent is done. I just think the pressure of college will wear him down. If we can ever get this case going again, he’ll be in and out of court, questioned, requiring to remember every detail that happened to him. Do you think he would be able to  juggle  all that along with college?”

Allura sits back and thinks for a moment, “I think you’re right. The pressure of both college workload and hopefully court, he will be in distress, which is kind of cruel and unusual punishment, and he’s been through enough already. I also agree with you and Shiro training him, All I ask is that you start with self-defen s e.”  She smiled softly, “Then we’ll start range  training,…  I have no worries of him getting a lucky shot. It was far too precise to be anything but natural talent.” Keith gets up to leave but she stopped him, “Oh! And Keith, I believe I owe you and Shiro an apology.”

“For what?” Confusion plastered on his face.

“Because I was wrong in assuming Lance wouldn’t recover. You and Shiro never gave up hope, and it’s a good thing you didn’t because I believe you an Shiro are a big part of him moving on.”

Keith chuckles, “We haven’t really done anything except give our support. I know I’ve said it a million times, but he is  _ much _  stronger than people think. He just wants to be treated normal, he just wants people to see him as Lance, because he refuses to let his trauma define him.”

“So then I suppose it’s Lance I need to  apologize to .”

“Probably not today though, his sessions with Dr. Holt tend to put him in rough mood.” Allura nods and Keith heads back downstairs. Shiro is standing in front of the two-way mirror, with his flesh arm across his chest and his other is resting under his chin, so Keith knows he’s either concentrating or thinking too much about something. He stands next to Shiro and  said, “What’s  going  on in that head of yours.”

“Lance...he’s acting strange towards Dr. Holt.” Shiro replies, eyes never leaving the two-way mirror. 

Keith looks into the room and can instantly tell what Shiro is talking about. His arms are crossed with his head hung back, supported by the child’s chair he sitting on the floor in front of. Normally Lance is a lot more focused, and a lot less aloof. His eyes are closed but Dr. Holt is still talking to Lance. Keith frowns, he reaches over to talk into the room from their speaker. “Lance.”

Instantly Lance’s head lifts off the chair and looks towards the mirror but Keith can’t head him, though it does look like he asked if they were listening. “Don’t worry, we’re not listening, we can talk into the room without turning on the speaker.” Keith pauses and then speaks, “I have some good news.”

Lance looks at him curiously through the mirror.  So  Keith explains, “I talked to Allura. She said you can bypass going to  collage  and Shiro and I can start training you in  self-defense  and even take you to the gun range if you’d like. You’ll still have to do the academy so the Director knows you’ve had all the necessary training, but you also can’t start until this case is either brought to court and led to Justice, or if it becomes an official cold-case.”

Lance gets up and runs to the door, he fumbles getting it open but recovers quickly and heads toward Keith. Before Keith could brace for it, Lance  lunged  at him, thankfully Shiro was  near by  and was able to stabilize them before they fell. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”

Keith tightens his hold on Lance until the Cuban man pulls away. Not for long though, because before he knows it Lance is grabbing his face and placing a peck on his lips. Then he scurried off before Keith could even process what just happened, and returns to the counseling room to continue his session with Dr. Holt.

Keith’s face had become so red and hot he thought it might actually explode. Shiro laughs and asks, “Did he break you?”

“Shiro!” Keith gasps, turning to face his boyfriend. “Shit! I-I didn’t mean for that to happen, I’m sorry! I swear I’d never cheat on you.”

Shiro smirks, placing his  hands on  Keith’s shoulders bending slightly to get eye level. “Keith, it’s okay I saw the entire thing. I know you would never, and I also know we need to speak with Lance about boundaries while his case is still open. We don’t want to jeopardize it. “

“As much as I don’t want to admit it, but yeah we should probably keep our feelings for him locked up right now”

****** 

The next day, Lance begged and begged to start training the instant he woke up.  So  Keith took him with on his morning run. Lance was getting better at staying at a high pace for longer. As they were lightly jogging back home, a fancy town car rolls up to the curb. The window in the back goes down, and Keith hits the brakes when he sees  Lotor  leaning out of it. “Keith, have you gotten anymore leads lately? No one has sent me new information in a while, so I was curious if the case was finally filed as a cold case.”

“Unless you’re admitting to being the  Galra  Gangs defense attorney, you have no rights to our information. When we get the evidence and suspect or suspects, and you happen to be the lawyer they call, then and only then are you getting any information on this case.”

Lotor  puts his hands up in fake surrender, “Alright, alright, I get it. I’ll quit being nosey.” His gaze shifts and he  smirks  at Lance who is standing behind him, fear filling his eyes. “Good morning Lance. I truly hope you’re recovering nicely.”

Lance whimpers a little, clinging onto the back of Keith’s shirt. Keith backs the both of them up, and  Lotor  cackles as he rolls up his window and the town car disappears down the road. Keith tries to comfort Lance the best he can as they return home. The rest of that day, Lance laid in his bed trying to get that horrid  mans  voice out of his head. Trying not to let his mind go back to those days. 

Keith stayed home from work, just in case  Lotor  or his gang decide to show up at their home again. Keith was just about to doze off when he hears a blood curdling scream from up-stairs. H hurries up them skipping two steps at a time. A small sense of relief filled Keith when he saw that Lance was having a nightmare. He was terrified and thought the  Galra  broke into their home again. Lance was sitting on his bed, with a tear streaked face, clutching his lion to his chest. Keith sits next to him and gently pulls him down to rest his head on Keith’s lap. Slowly he runs his fingers through Lance’s hair, whispering encouraging words. When Lance finally stopped crying and shaking, Keith asked, “Do you want to stay in bed, or come downstairs and we can read or watch a movie?”

Lance whispered, “ Movie, please .”

Keith smiles softly, “Alright, I’ll go get some popcorn made, I’ll meet you in the living room.”

Lance sniffled and nodded. The only stop he made before following Keith down the stairs was to Keith and Shiro’s room, to grab their red and black lions. 

*****

When Shiro got home that evening he tried to be quiet so he doesn’t startle any of them. He called out their names but he had no response. As his slipped his shoes off and walked into the house, he could hear the T.V. was on. He walked in the living room, seeing the end credits of a movie rolling on the screen. He looked at the couch, and he smiles brightly at what he sees. Keith is sitting on one end of the couch, his head bent oddly which will likely give him a sore neck in the morning. Lance’s head is in Keith’s lap, with one of Keith’s hands in his hair. His mouth is hanging open a bit, and he’s curled up around three familiar lions. Carefully he adjusts Keith’s neck to have his head laying on the back of the couch, then he grabs a blanked off the arm chair and lays it over Lance. He smiles once more then heads up the stairs to get ready for bed. Right before he laid down, his phone chimed. Thinking it was one of his coworkers and looks at it. Confused he opens a text from a number he doesn’t recognize. Shocked, he sees a photo of children and teens bloodied and bruised, in a room much like the one Lance was held in. With a message that read; “Give up Lance, you will be informed of a time and place. If he is not alone, or doesn’t show up, there will be consequences involving these children.”

“Shit...” Shiro curses.


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!! Just want to give you a heads up. I've been in a pretty dark mood lately, which makes my writing dark. 
> 
> Trigger warnings;   
> *Rape/non-con  
> *Talk of past abuse.  
> *Rape/ Non-con. (I know I already put it, but it didn't feel like enough to just mention it once.)

A few days after Shiro had gotten that text, they were gathered in Allura’s office. Reluctantly the team let Lance join them. Which Honestly, he really didn’t want to. When Shiro had shown him the text, he had barely responded. He  _ knew _  the  Galra  would try anything they could. He just hoped he’d get a quick death.  Plus  everyone is Staring at Lance an making him uncomfortable because of his volunteering.

Allura, who was leaning against her desk, was the first to actually respond. “Lance...in order for your plan to work...without getting yourself killed or abducted again...is extremely dangerous. They will probably have the location they choose  thoroughly  looked through for any recording devises and likely have back up lingering.

“Allura, don’t even play into it. He’s not turning himself back over to the  Galra , he’s not  bait .” Keith spoke for  Lance , arms crossed and glare directed at his boss. 

Then another huge argument roared between the agents. Only two staying out of it were Lance and Shiro. Lance leans in close to Shiro and whispers. “You and I both know it’s the only way we may ever catch them. I can do this. I’ve been a lot better lately.”

Shiro sighs, “I know...but Keith...he just—"

“Doesn’t want to lose someone else he cares for to the Galra.” Lance finished for him.

The argument falls silent when Matt bursts though the office door. “Might as well thank me now, because I am a genius.” 

Everyone stared at him expecting an explanation. It takes Matt a few seconds to realize this. “Oh! I suppose you want to know what the heck I’m talking about?” Everyone stays silence. “Yeah, of course you are. ANYWAY! It’s easy to see you are all worked up by this situation. But fear no more!” Matt pulls out a small container, “This holds my best invention yet.” Slowly he opens it and Pidge scoffs. “ Oh  ye of little faith sister.” He gently puts his finger in the empty container and then holds it up for everyone to see. “Contacts!”

Keith moves closer to see it better, “There’s no tech in them...how is this helpful”

“Ah Keith...that is where you’re wrong. There is tech in it. It has video, audio, and GPS.”

“How the hell did you make it clear?” Pidge asks, thoroughly impressed.

Matt puts the contact back into its holder. “Well because of the size of what I was working with, it uses the clearest fish wire I could find to conceal even smaller tech parts. If light hits in at the perfect angle the Fish wire would be noticeable.  So  I used  cable  that matches Lance’s eye color.  So  if by chance the light reflects in an unlucky way, all that it would look like are different shades of his eye color reflecting in the son, like everyone else's.”

Everyone at once looked back over to Lance, his face was stoic, almost stone cold, with a look in his eyes that no one could deny was revenge.

*****

Lance had been wearing the contacts off and off trying to get used to them, but now...now there was no more time. Now he was about to walk into a giant ass trap. If he dies, fine...if he becomes their slave again, so be it. What he is doing right now is helping the FBI and team  Vol t ron  bust the assholes who stole his life from him. 

He has been walking toward the given location, some graveyard on the other side from the city, just on the edge of it. Keith and Shiro had dropped him off almost 2 miles away at the request of the  Galra . Lance knows someone has been walking behind him for the last fifteen minutes, but he tries not to look back at him, otherwise he just might bolt. Run away from the monsters he was forced to spend his childhood with.

Soon Lance reaches the graveyard. With a deep breath and shaking hands, he opens the gate and walks in. The sun setting more and more with each passing second. This graveyard must no longer be in service to new deceased. The weeds have over grown, tombstones covering in moss, some cracked or broken. He stumbles when the man who was following sped up, and shoved Lance telling him to move faster.

By the time they got to the other end of the graveyard the sky fell into darkness, the only light from the stars and moon above. Lance looked up at the starts. He hadn’t seen them in a very long time. Keith and Shiro live in the city, not on the outskirts like this. There’s too much light pollution taking away from the sky’s beauty.

“Oh, Lance...it is _  so _ _ good _  to see you again.”  Lotor’s  voice breaks his last moment of true bliss. “My Generals tell me that you indeed came along.  Only  thing to do next is  check  for weapons, and wires. Take your jacket off.

Lance slipped his favorite jacket off, and held it out to  Lotor  who searched it for hidden equipment. When that was over ,  Lotor  demanded his shirt and pants. Lance shivers, winter had just begun not long ago, and now he’s standing in his briefs in  forty  degrees, with no sun for heat. 

Lotor  gestured to the General who had followed lance. “Check his body, don’t miss one centimeter of his body.”

Lance holds as still as he can, because if he followed instructions, maybe they’ll go easy on him, but he highly doubts it. The General started with Lance’s hair, painfully pulling on his hair so much Lance though chucks would be missing. Then was his neck, arms and torso. The Cuban man tried not to throw up as a  galra  member did as instructed. Then came the part that he was dreading. The man slipped his hands under Lance’s briefs and fondle him. Lance was ready to bolt. Ready to run, but he couldn’t because right now he feels like the little boy who was kidnapped.  He’s not strong or fast. Best thing to do was keep quiet.

The General's hands slid back out only to be put back in on Lance’s ass. Lance looks to  Lotor  who was watching the man’s hands. He nods his head, eyes snapping up to look at Lance’s face. Then pain rips through him, as three fingers were plunged into his ass. He tried, he really did, not to scream but he couldn’t help it.  Fingers were forced in and out of him repeatedly, the pain was unimaginable. Lance begged, “Please! Stop! Just...just kill me already.”

Lotor  huffs a laugh, “Did you really think we’d let a snitch like you off easy?  Lets  go.”

*****

Not far behind Voltron is keeping a safe distance as they trail behind to bust those sorry assholes. Allura is driving With Keith and Shiro in her SUV. She would not allow them to go alone. It could cause issues with the case.  So  they have been instructed to wear body cams in order to have proof that this isn’t some random rage kill. They want the  Garla  alive, want to see them pay for their crimes. In the other SUV is Hunk and Pidge. Coran behind them.

Allura looked in her review mirror and frowns when she sees Keith with a hand over his mouth, and tear streaks down his face. Both Shiro and Keith had been watching the footage live on their phones, Pidge would be doing the same since Hunk is driving. “Keith, what’s wrong?” Allura asked.”

Lotor  had one of his fuckin minions assault Lance. HE was getting better! He was accepting more touch from everyone. Hunk even squeezed him into one of his giant hugs and Lance didn’t even flinch or panic. I’m...I’m scared we won’t make it in time.”

Shiro looks over to his boyfriend, “He’ll be okay.”

The car falls silent except the gps.

*****

 Lance was shoved into the  trunk of the car. It didn’t feel like he was in there for long, when they opened the trunk and pulled him out. He stumbled trying to stand. HE looks around to see where they are, and notices how far the cities lights really are. When he’s pushed to walk, he sees a cabin in the middle of know where.  Lance remembered about Keith’s parents and how the  Galra  killed them to take their property.  Lance internally groaned, if this is Keith’s old home...there not only trying to hurt him, but also Keith.

Lotor  opens the door and he  smirks  when he  see’s  Lance’s face. “You must have figured out where we are. It’s funny. I looked into Keith’s history, since every agent has a file about them. Poor Keith was left orphaned by my Father.”

“Why? Keith has been through enough, he doesn’t need to see me dead in his childhood home!” 

“See that’s where you’re wrong. Keith and Shiro stole you from us. You ‘re our property. We claimed you when you were a mere child. We trained you!”  Lotor  yelled, and grabbed Lance’s jaw, and forcefully kissed him. Lance’s tried to pull away, tried pushing him away, but he was thrown to the ground, and  Lotor  started beating him. Lance was able to avoid a few shots, but more of the gang joined in, treating Lance like a damn punching bag. He tried several time to crawl away but there were too many of them.

Lance curled up into a ball trying to protect his head. But then two different gang members, grabbed  hi,.  One had his wrists and another his ankles. Lance yelled and  screamed ,  because he knew what this meant. Lance is getting punished. He broke  rules,.   Behind him a general got in-between his legs. His briefs are pulled down to his knees, Then he grit his teeth as  the  General  slammed his way inside of Lance. The pace and the harshness  was  just like normal.  The sting of the man’s semen is just how he remembered it too.  

They didn’t let Lance go long, just to have another  dick  shoved  into him painfully. “Stop...please. I-I'll stay,  just  please  stop,it  hurts.” Lance begged.

“You have no say in this,  Lotor  walks  between  Lance’s  arms, unzips his pants and snarls, “Get to work. Don’t even dare to bite.”

With  a  sob, he just barely gets his mouth open, Before  Lotor  shoves Lance’s head onto his member, and holds him there  while he takes  pleasure  of Lance’s neck  throat  as  he tries to breathe. His  eyes  start to feel heavy,  and  he  feels light headed. Maybe this is how they’re going to kill him.

He can’t dye this  way,  he won’t let them. Lance bites down as Hard as he can on  Lotor’s  member, Then all hell breaks through.


End file.
